


Novum Imperium

by aeiparthenos



Series: Vulpes Inculta and Aurelia of Phoenix [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Abuse, Caesar's Legion - Major Warning, Cheating, Children, Complicated Relationships, Confusion, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Family Drama, Father-Daughter Relationship, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Underage Relationship(s), Internalized Misogyny, Lactation Kink, Love, Love/Hate, Loving Marriage, Marriage, Misogyny, Newborn Children, Parent/Child Incest, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Polyamory, Possessive Behavior, Protectiveness, Psychological Torture, Relationship(s), Sexual Abuse, Size Kink, Slavery, Timeline Shenanigans, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-10-16 04:19:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10563561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeiparthenos/pseuds/aeiparthenos
Summary: The continuation of the series about Aurelia of Phoenix, Courier Six and her way through the west. The story has its base in the canon-New Vegas storyline, but from this part and onward it is canon-friendly AU.Six has given birth to her second surviving child and has been relocated to the newly annexed New Vegas under Legion rule and things seems to have solved themselves, much due to Six leaving all the hard work to the Legion and being a pliant slave. However, Caesar is not well and our over all favorite psychopath Vulpes Inculta grows more and more worried about the succession of the Legion hierarchy.Photos that I used for inspiration for my characters while writing can be found at: poisonivyzeigel.tumblr.com





	1. A Day in the Life

What’s your name?  
Who’s your daddy?  
(He rich) Is he rich like me?  
Has he taken any time to show you what you need to live?  
Tell it to me slowly   
(Tell me what) I really want to know  
\- The Zombies ‘Time of the Season’

***

It was an intoxicating feeling, being above him and simply following his slow movements as the beads of sweat rolled down her glistening skin. His skin glimmered in the faint light from the oil-lamps and the room around them was dark, shadows moving carefully as the flame of the lamp danced.  
His hands on her hips guided her and she leaned back, steadying herself on his thighs as she rolled her hips back and forth, pulling soft moans out from between his thin lips.  
Her bosom was swollen and the breasts, heavy from the milk, strained every time he couldn’t hold back a jerk of his hips, which made her upper lip tense and draw back slightly – telling of an incoming snarl that quickly turned into a moan as his fingers moved between her thighs, finding just the right spot.  
As she leaned her head back, letting out a moan from deep within her, he could feel the tickling sensation of the strands of her hair against his thighs, but it was soon overshadowed by the tensing motions of her body clasping around his manhood as her movements increased.

She felt his strong, calloused hand still guiding her from her hip as she moved faster with the speed of his other hand, circling her sweet spot in the soft but determined way that was just right. His swollen cock was deeply within her and her body hugged it unconsciously as she leaned forwards, grinding herself against his abdomen and hand, both breathing heavily. She could feel the build-up within her that had been there for quite some time now. How long had they been at it now? She had lost track of time long ago. Their bodies were covered in sweat and her patience was growing thin, he however, could keep this slow-moving pace up for what right now felt like an eternity – teasing her body in an almost torture-like way. 

“Resist”, he whispered as he rubbed her nub slower, but speeding up the rolling movement of her hips.  
“I hate you”, she seethed, looking down on him through heavily lidded eyes.  
“I know”, he whispered with a lazily smug expression. 

The sweat from her sweet body dripped down onto his chest and abdomen and as he took the heavy flesh of one of her breasts between his lips, he could taste the saltiness of her heated skin. When he sucked on the nipple, he was rewarded with just a small hint of sweet milk and it made him groan and twitch. She must have felt his reaction, because she sniggered softly and bucked down on him, taking him in completely and she swung her head around, creating a gust of wind around them from her long hair. 

“I don’t think I can hold on any longer…” she breathed, her chest was blushing in crimson and her cheeks flustered as she tried to control her body.  
“You’re not allowed to succumb yet, Aurelia”, he moaned.  
“Then you need to stop”, she moaned.  
“No”  
“Yes”  
“Resist it”  
“I can’t”, and then she cried out, her body clenching around him so hard his cock almost slipped out of her and he could feel her pulsating all over him, becoming so completely soaked from the orgasm it felt like his manhood was drenched in flushing wet, warm velvet.  
He grabbed her hips and quickly threw her over to her back, pinning her down in the bed, fucking her fast and hard, while she was still riding out the waves of her orgasm. She loved it when he did that, her orgasm heightening her senses, making her swollen and sensitive and his cock hitting the exact right spot inside her. Her moans turned into deep shouts of pleasure he was sure would wake the baby up in a second on two. But it didn’t matter, a slave would take care of their child. He was far from done with his wife yet. 

When the last of her orgasm had left her body in a shaking blissfulness, she looked up and met the glowing light eyes of her husband as he stood on his knees before her spread thighs, pounding into her soft flesh with a drawn back snarl on his face. His chest was flushed and his chiseled body looked like glistening marble in the dim light. In the background she could hear their child scream from having woken up and in the corner of her eye, she saw someone sneak into their bedroom and move towards the corner where their baby was sleeping. Vulpes didn’t take notice and kept pounding into her, gripping her hips so hard she would have bruises in the morning. Soon his hand was on her throat and he leaned in over her and bit down on her shoulder, making her scream from both the pain and the burning pleasure it left on her skin. He knew just how to tick her body and soon he began to grind against her again. 

“Please, no, no”, she breathed, it was too much. Surely she would die if he made her come again so soon after the first orgasm. He didn’t care and kept grinding against her, pulling up one of her legs on top of his shoulder so he could come as close to her as possible. “You’re a terrible man”, she whispered between her breaths.  
“Liar”, he hissed into her ear, kissing her neck and squeezing her throat harder. “Come for me”  
She didn’t die, never did really – even though she had thought many times before that such pleasure should be able to cause a human body to simply shut down. Making the heart stop from all the overwhelming feelings pouring in and out, from the sheer intensity.  
“Fuck me”, she panted and her whole body felt numb.  
“I am”, he answered and pushed inside her with such ferocity she thought she was going to break, but she never broke, instead she only enjoyed it, feeling almost like she’d fallen into a helpless half-comatose state only watching the god-like creature above her.  
When his release came, she could always feel the tension of his body from within her and she could never understand how someone could look so beautiful in just that moment – his entire body stiffening and his movements becoming erratic and then, his head fell back and he let out a deep moan before falling down over her, letting go of her throat. 

“I don’t think I will be able to move”, she panted, stroking his damp hair back from his face.  
“Me neither”, he breathed from between her breasts.

***

New Vegas had been annexed by the Legion and the suburbs of Freeside and Westside had been turned into either graveyards filled with crosses, decorated with bloated bodies, or internment camps for the captured male NCR soldiers. The female NCR soldiers they managed to capture alive was turned into slaves and auctioned off, some of them remaining in New Vegas, others were being transported back to Arizona for Flagstaff or Phoenix.  
Vulpes had spent the majority of the time since they’d taken Vegas with torturing former NCR soldiers and officials that they had been able to take alive. Interrogating had always been a pleasure to him, it was the perfect way to make use of his intelligence and integrate some violence into his work, and it was also so very rewarding.  
Right now, to Vulpes, everything was almost uncomfortably fine. Everything had gone perfectly smooth since Aurelia was brought back to the Fort from Vegas, except for the part with those idiot friends of her trying to kidnap her. She had, however, been a good pliable girl and taken the first chance she could and gotten back to her master. Obviously the shortsighted profligates didn’t think she’d prefer being a woman under Caesar, but that didn’t surprise him the least. The dissolutes had always had a hard time understanding how women could even survive under Caesar’s rule, well, that was simple. Women needed to be protected and cared for, they needed to be given a purpose and they needed to be trusted with that purpose. A family, hobbies and a home to care for, it was usually sufficient. Of course, it hadn’t been enough for his Aurelia at first, but that was mainly his own fault, he had allowed her too much leniency and now he had learned from that mistake.  
It would do them both well to keep her occupied in the nearest future.

Vulpes had also taken himself a lush little pet, an NCR ranger who had been somewhat of a delicacy that he kept locked up most of the time – in a different building from the Ultra-Luxe in which she and Aurelia had a whole floor to themselves. Aurelia didn’t need to know about his pet-projects, he was sure it would only upset her. She was continuing to act rather sour as soon as the subject regarding his bastard children came up, she knew it was unworthy of her but she couldn’t quite help her jealousy. Perhaps it was due to the fact that she herself was born as a bastard child to ha higher-ranking legionary and then ignored up until Vulpes had shown her some appreciation. Well, his father-in-law hardly spoke to Aurelia and Vulpes was eager to keep it that way. The man was a great centurion, but he was a degenerate and if anything, Vulpes wanted to keep his wife as far away from him as possible. Whatever it was concerning his bastard daughters and the foolish feelings Aurelia had against him abandoning them, or that she wanted to smother them, he really couldn’t care less about. He had to admit that he couldn’t help but to like her jealousy a bit. She got so worked up and he enjoyed bating her, having her lash out towards him and then ending up moaning his name as he fucked her. She was brilliant, his woman.  
His pet however, was an exciting little side dish that he relished during special occasions. He had her tied up most of the time in a cell in the basement of the Gomorrah. He had even allowed for her to be shared with his second in command, Alerio – there was something that was so utterly satisfying about having a woman being fucked from behind, sucking your cock and trying not to gag from crying at the same time. The ranger he had found himself was a beauty, looking slightly different from Aurelia – but it had always been clear to Vulpes that he indeed had a certain ‘type’ when it came to women. He wanted them pale and a bit softer, not all skin and muscle. If he wanted skin and muscle, he might as well fuck a man and he had fucked men, but it was more as a part of warfare and nothing he took sexual pleasure from. This woman, her name had been Josie – now her name was nothing at all. She was less than a slave, she didn’t deserve a name, specially since she kept misbehaving as she did, with the tears and the shouting and cursing. But he liked it. She had tried to kill him twice in a week when he first brought her with him down into the basement and he found that amusing. She kept digging herself deeper, not even half as intelligent as Aurelia who quickly acclimatized to her current conditions and took care to know the limits of her living arrangements – not overstepping her bounds all too often. 

It saddened him however, after six months, to see that his pet was getting close to becoming completely broken down. She had started fighting back less and hardly answered anymore when he baited her – though, she had kept him entertained for quite some time. Most whores he took for himself didn’t last more than a couple of months, at most. Lasting for six months, was good work on her side, after all. He had enjoyed her. 

Another one of his concerns that made his smooth-going life less so, was Caesar’s headaches. They had confiscated an auto-doc from the Followers of the Apocalypse at the Old Mormon Fort, but it was broken and difficult to repair. Vulpes had a better knowledge of pre-war technology than anyone else within the Legion, but it wasn’t sufficient.  
Picus, better known to the profligates as Captain Ronald Curtis had been able to escape with some of the NCR during the Legion's annexation of the Strip. Of course, that was the plan all along, if he managed to survive. He had sent word from Shady Sands, where General Lee Oliver had been instated as the General Commander and acting President of the New California Republic. Picus was continuing to work his way up the ranks within the NCR and true to his training within the Frumentarii, he had caught the eyes of the new first lady, Nancy Oliver. That did bode well for the Legion and Vulpes had decided to send in a few more spies into the military ranks, starting a slow gaining of control from within the organization itself.  
What was even further good news, was the fact that the NCR had been able to let slip that they had a certain doctor survive the annexation of New Vegas. Arcade Gannon. Arcade Gannon could possibly preform the surgery Caesar needed, considering his medical training came from the Enclave. Vulpes had realized the easiest way to get to Arcade, would be through his wife, though since she had recently given birth, he couldn’t send her to Shady Sands right away. Apparently, several of the ‘old friends’ his wife had acquired during her confusion after finding herself in a shallow grave, had escaped into California and resided in or near Shady Sands. Perhaps his wife should ‘escape’ again, seeking shelter in the NCR?  
It wasn’t an all bad idea, if he had to say it himself. Hopefully Caesar wouldn’t die until they could get their hands on Gannon. Even though Vulpes didn’t mind Lanius, to have him as the new Caesar would be completely devastating. He was a brute, an effective brute, surely, but without much intelligence or intricate strategically sound thinking. Were Caesar to die, Lanius unfortunately had to die with him. Vulpes was sure Lucius would agree with him on that.

***

“So, this is my most recent grandchild?” an all too familiar voice sounded from behind Six as she stood with one of her slaves, selecting fruits and vegetables from a merchant outside the old NCR embassy. _Father_ , Six thought and straightened her back as well as tightening the grip around her two months old child.  
“Ave, father”, Six turned her head to look at the centurion. “It is, this is Ferox”  
“It seems the gods are pleased with you after all. Another son”, the man grinned in a most uncanny way, as always when his lips curled upward. It seemed a most unnatural expression for his stony and cruel face.  
“What brings you to New Vegas?” she asked, more for trying to retain some civil politeness rather than actual curiosity.  
“Politics, as always”, he grunted, going back to his usual stoic appearance and unfortunately for Six, taking a step closer to her. “But don’t you worry girl, you might just be seeing a bit more of your old man in the near future. If Caesar gets what he wants, that is. But he always does, no?” he gave a quick smug smile, breathing into her ear while pretending to lean in to get a better look at his grandson. “Is it really proper for a praefectus’ wife to wear her toga so tightly around her bust?”  
Six held Ferox tighter to cover her shaking as she did everything she could not to show how upset she was feeling from her fathers distasteful advances. Had he always been this intrusive? Vulpes had never mentioned anything about her father abusing her sexually. From what she knew, he hadn’t even acknowledged her until she married Vulpes and he certainly never mentioned her father doing anything…sick, with her.  
She needed to stay her ground against him, it wouldn’t lead to anything good to show herself weak in the company in such a predator as Aurelius. “Why the sudden interest, if I may ask?” she refused to look at him, instead she rested her eyes on Ferox, who was sleeping against her swollen chest.  
Aurelius didn’t answer, he merely chuckled and bid her vale, before retreating into the masses of people around the market.

Six sighed and turned to her slave again, ignoring the questioning eyes she received and continued picking fruits from the merchant. If this continued, she would have to mention something to Vulpes and that would not lead to anything good. It would definitely turn bad, messy and bad, if she knew her husband.  
New Vegas under the control of Caesar was however, a rather nice place. The only thing she missed was the beaming and flickering lights from the casinos and restaurants, but that small detail was easily forgotten when the drunkards, gamblers and general degenerates disappeared from the Strip. Outside the Strip, it wasn’t as pleasant, but Six hardly ever went to Freeside or Westside, she had no reason for it, as everything she needed could be found within the Strip, or it was brought in to her by someone else. Vulpes didn’t want her to leave the high walls and Six was okay spending her days behind them. _Until now_.  
She was usually quite adept at putting her father out of her mind, but that was when he stayed at Cottonwood Cove – seeing him on the Strip made him too close for comfort. She looked over her shoulder and saw that he was talking to Silus, another centurion who she knew had fallen into Caesar’s bad graces after letting himself get caught by NCR instead of falling on his machete as a good legionary is supposed to do. He had however been able to earn the Lords trust back during the past half year and was now called back into the Strip along with the Legions other centuri. Six knew something was happening, but she didn’t know what exactly. Right now, she didn’t know if she rightly cared, being too busy with Ferox. 

When she came back to the entire 10th floor of the Ultra-Luxe on which she and Vulpes lived, it seemed as if her husband was home early for once. It happened at times, but he was usually quite busy with work, coordinating a whole network of spies spread all over the southwest took its fair share of time, along with all the interrogation and...other 'work related' things. She put Ferox down with the slave she had been with at the market and walked over to Vulpes home office, which must have been a former smaller living room. That whole wing of the 10th floor was Vulpes own space and she rarely went there, unless she was asked or if she needed something from her husband. This time, she just wanted to see him, after her run-in with Aurelius down at the market, she needed some reassurance of some kind. 

Vulpes sat behind his desk when she carefully knocked on the large oak-door leading into his office, he was working on something on his terminal and looked up at her from the green light of the screen.  
“What is it?” he asked in a short tone. Perhaps this was a bad idea, she could just have waited for him to come out into their shared part of the large living quarters.  
“I am disturbing you, aren’t I? I’m sorry, I’ll leave”, Six quickly turned to leave again. It was obvious he was in a bad mood. She had learned to read her husband and could differentiate his moods from the way his eyes looked, even though his face remained stoic and emotionless.  
“Aurelia”, he called for her, “Come back”  
Six turned again and walked into his office and he gestured for her to come to him, behind the desk.  
“Is something the matter, love?” he asked as she kneeled before him where he sat in his chair. She leaned her head against his bare thigh, he wasn’t dressed in armor, only a simple red tunic and a baltea as most legionaries was when they were ‘off duty’, if there was ever such a thing under Caesar.  
“I met Aurelius down at the market, it shook me up a bit, as usual. I just wanted to see you, ‘tis all”, Six sighed as Vulpes stroke his fingers through her loose long hair. “I noticed you where home and I just felt an urge, you know”  
“You don’t have to apologize for wanting to see me”, Vulpes’ voice sounded soft and melodious as it always did when he was trying to calm her, or manipulate her. “Didn’t I tell you Caesar had sent for all centuri in the western parts of the empire?”  
“You did, it simply slipped my mind”, Six leaned into his touch, almost purring. It was strange that a person could incite such pleasure and at the same time retain such a dangerous feel to them. Six was more comfortable with Vulpes now than she had been six months ago, having become used to how he acted and falling in line with the changes in his mood. But due to his mood, she still tiptoed around him a lot of the time. He was seldom violent towards her, after the punishment she received after having dealt with Benny at the Tops, she seemed to have earned some respect from him. 

“You needn’t be afraid of him, you know”, Vulpes said calmly.  
“I know, he just creeps me out”  
“Yes”, he answered, looking a bit distraught, “He does that to people in general. I’ve been told I have a similar effect on people”  
“You’re not a child rapist and a cannibal”, Six retorted defensively.  
“Thank the gods. But I’m a lot of other things”  
“Perhaps”, Six stroked one of his knees with her fingertips and looked up at her husband, “But you don’t creep me the fuck out”  
“Language, dear”, Vulpes looked down at her and Six rolled her eyes.  
“That was perfectly called for, considering the topic of conversation”  
“I feel inclined to agree, however, I don’t like hearing you swearing like a common profligate”, Vulpes grabbed her hair lightly and scratched her scalp with his short cut nails.  
“Sorry”, Six gave him a small apologetic smile. “He’s not coming here though, Aurelius, I mean?”  
“Hadn’t planned on inviting him, why? Did he say something?”  
“No…not really. He just commented on seeing Ferox”  
Vulpes nodded slowly, “Yes, well, he’s his grandson, after all”  
“Unfortunately”, Six grimaced. 

Vulpes spent the evening at home and they ate a light dinner together before he left again around midnight. By then Aurelia had already been asleep for a few hours, but due to Ferox waking every other hour during the night needing to be fed, Six woke up when Vulpes left the bed to leave. She never commented on him leaving in the middle of the night or coming home early in the morning. It simply wasn’t her place to criticize him about the hours he worked, or whatever the hell he was up to. It was so much easier just falling in line with how living with him was and accepting it for what it was. At least that’s what Six thought about it rationally. Emotionally was a whole other thing.

***


	2. Dis Moi Ç'Est Quand

_2,5 years earlier, ruins of St. George, pre-war tri-state junction_

“You’re just going to leave me here?” Aurelia looked at the older man, wrapped in bandages but strangely enough clad in the same denim’s and shirt with the bulletproof vest he wore as a legate. He still looked every bit as much as the Joshua Graham who had interrupted the lashing of her husband three years ago and saved him from a certain death on a cross. Even though his face was badly burned underneath the white cloth he wrapped himself in, his eyes were the same – that cold but clear blue determined stare – and she could picture that he still wore the same stern facial expression with set jaws.  
“You didn’t want to stay in Zion, this was our deal”, Joshua turned to look back at the young tribal man standing a few yards away, keeping a look-out for hostile tribals or the Legion.  
“You’ve gone completely off your head with that strange religion of yours, it’s scrambled your brain”, Aurelia narrowed her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s made you weak, legate”  
“Don’t call me that!” Joshua hissed and grabbed her upper arm. “You might not agree with my faith in the Lord, but I’ve helped you as best as I can. There’s nothing more I can do for you, unless you decide to stay”  
“And do what? Convert to your ‘god’?”  
“I’d never force my faith upon you, girl. But you have to face the facts, you’re an escaped slave. I’m sure you had your reasons, considering who you’re married to – but from now on out, there are few places in which you are safe. The Legion have eyes as far east as Washington DC and throughout the west all the way onto the pacific”  
“Well that’s not helping”, Aurelia rolled her eyes, “So, any suggestions?”  
“Stay”  
“ _Except_ for the obvious”  
Joshua sighed and changed his stance, switching his weight over on his other foot, rubbing his temples at the same time. “I can only help you within the lands we control, even now we’re far away from our borders and I’ve lead you as far as I can go. The choice is up to you, I’ve offered you the help I’m able to give, but I can do nothing more”  
“And the NCR’s not safe?”  
“From Caesar? Of course not. You’re probably safer moving within Legion held lands, than you are roaming the NCR”  
“I guess that leaves me no choice”, Aurelia took one of Joshua’s hands in her own and squeezed lightly. “Thank you, Graham, for taking me in and helping me. I know you don’t agree with me, but to me, you’ve always been a good man – I wish you had found me earlier. I would have been happy to be yours”  
Joshua’s eyes became blank, though still retaining their determined stare. He drew Aurelia into his embrace and hugged her as hard as his scarred and burnt body could handle, without the pain becoming too large. “And I yours, Aurelia. You’ll always have a place in my flock, don't forget that”  
“I won’t”, she whispered, leaning her forehead against his chin, letting his sweat-soaked arms embrace her. She needed to get moving before the sun began setting, so she could enter the relative safety of Nevada and make her way over to California within the week. “Vale, Joshua”, Aurelia said and backed out of his embrace, “Hopefully we’ll meet again someday”  
Joshua nodded but remained silent as Aurelia walked out of the ruins that used to be the small town of St. George with it’s red rock boulders framing the towns skyline, just next to the pre-war borders of the tri-state area of Utah, Arizona and Nevada.  
_This was it_ , Aurelia thought, now she was completely alone.

***

Aurelia thought of herself as a loyal wife, a good woman under Caesar who did everything she could to make the life of her hard-working husband as easy and pleasant as possible. She had her flaws, just like everyone else did, of course. She was somewhat impulsive and her feelings could sometimes cloud her mind completely and her patience could wear thin at times – with everyone but Vulpes. She allowed him lenience she would have never accepted if he were anyone else, except, she didn’t have a choice. She would never have a choice within the societal structure of Caesar and the Legion.  
Her husband was not a good man, almost no man under Caesar was what the historians would later deem as good, but who really was? She came from a culture were the men ruled and the women bowed their heads in submission. It was everything she had even known and before Vulpes bought her, she would have kept silent without questioning the world around her.  
Instead, she was brought into a household of intelligence and a constant search for broadening of the intellectual arts. A household filled to the brim with all kinds of pre-war books, in English, Latin, Spanish and even German and French. Vulpes spoke English, Latin and Spanish and read the two other without problem and Aurelia was soon taught to understand the different languages as well. Vulpes wanted his wife to be educated, unlike almost all other men of the Legion. The only others with the same interest in education, was Caesar himself and the Legate, Joshua Graham. She would have discussion’s of philosophy with the legate and her husband during late nights in the legate’s villa and if Caesar was in a good mood, he’d be willing to debate the existence of the gods with her, fascinated by her quick learning and her ability to analyze and deduce different arguments.

It was her education combined with a quite vast series of events that eventually led to her escaping her makeshift home, her husband and her son.  
Vulpes had not been a Frumentarius for long when the Legion lost the first battle of Hoover Dam and the legate was drenched in pitch, set alight and thrown off the Grand Canyon in a show of force from Caesar. No one was safe from the punishment for failure by the Son of Mars. The loss had affected the entire Legion and as soon as Joshua Graham was dead, Lanius, a great tribal brute was moved up from praefectus to legate, taking Grahams spot as Caesar’s right hand and second in command. The move had shocked everyone within the higher ranks of the Legion, there was no doubt that Lanius was a formidable warrior and praefectus, but if anyone had been next in line to become a legate, it was Lucius – the praefectus of the Praetorian Guard, Caesar’s elite body guards and legionaries – the same organization in which the Frumentarii was a branch of. 

For some time after the loss at Hoover Dam, things went sour within the Legion ranks, to put things mildly. Perhaps in Aurelia had been in Flagstaff, she wouldn’t have noticed the creaking within the officer’s ranks as much, but now she was living with her young toddler and husband in the large camp, Fortification Hill on the other side of the Colorado from the Nevadan border. Things within the ranks almost escalated into a power struggle and all Aurelia could do, was mourn the loss of Graham, who she held a deep admiration for – even though he was seen as a monster and a madman, even by his own men. He was highly intelligent and not very unlike her husband, though at least 20 years older. Men like Graham, Caesar and Lucius (and her goddamn father, unfortunately) deserved respect, to have survived for as long as they had within an organization where the expectant age of a man was around 23 years – those beyond that age was what one would deem as nothing but formidable warriors. Her husband, having survived to be 30 years old next year, was quite possibly the slyest of them all. Aurelia was convinced he’d be able to reach the age of 100 years if given the chance – the man just didn’t seem to be able to die. It was both fortunate and unfortunate for Aurelia, since she loved her husband immensely, but hated him about as much. After the death of Graham, the hatred took over and it simmered within her for the two years after the loss at Hoover Dam until she snapped and bolted, while Vulpes was in New Vegas on a mission. 

She was well aware of the fact that Vulpes had other women on the side, it was commonplace and nothing a normal woman would even dare to comment on. However, Aurelia could contain many of her feelings, but jealousy was not one of them. Her husband also had the great distaste of having a certain ‘type’ when it came to woman and surely, she fit into that type perfectly herself. It didn’t help however, that the other women he chose to fuck was so much like her, each of them in their own way. Aurelia figured it didn’t necessarily have to do with looks, rather it came down to personality. Vulpes seemed to enjoy playing with them, just as a fox plays with its victims. With her, thankfully, he kept it down to bating and playing on her jealousy, prying the violent reactions out of her until he got the chance to subdue her, from which he seemed to extract great pleasure.  
Then there was _her_.  
The hussy that made Aurelia snap.

***

As long as the whores he lay with left her alone, Aurelia could handle it. She could stand it, especially when she had something else to focus on, but with _her_ , Vulpes had gone too far. Aurelia made her distaste for the entire situation known to him and took the punishment that came with expressing what she felt, like a proud woman. She had never agreed to be humiliated, she was the mother of his son – either he could chose to have her set aside, or should he got rid of the new pet. It was an ultimatum.  
Vulpes did not do ultimatums, unless they came directly from Caesar himself and certainly not from his wife, who essentially was nothing more than his property, _his slave_.  
The girl, she had gotten it into her mind that Vulpes would cast Aurelia aside for her, which Aurelia knew never would happen. That didn’t, however, mean that he could keep both of them and Vulpes refused to let her degrade him into making a decision. She suspected he enjoyed the indignant catfight that had broken out between herself and her husbands new pet and Aurelia refused to be bated into actually lashing out physically towards the girl. In private, she lashed out towards Vulpes, but that was another thing completely. But it was hurting her, hurting that her husband acted like such an emotionally cold bastard that he couldn’t see how the situation was utterly painful to her. She had just given birth to a stillborn daughter and she felt like both her body and mind was ruined, sagging, hurting and still bloated from the pregnancy – and he chose to spend his time with a girl who more or less bullied his wife.

The girl would sneak comments to Aurelia when they met outside and sometimes she would all of a sudden be inside their tent, when Vulpes wasn’t there, and bate Aurelia, trying to get a kick out of her insecure suffering. Of course this girl thought she had hit jackpot, gaining the attentions of Vulpes Inculta. Sure, he was a complete and utter maniac, but he was handsome and intelligent – but a sadist to the core – the way he climbed the ranks within the Legion and the fact that he had recently impressed Caesar even further by blowing up an entire tribal village on the Californian border, he was a catch for anyone who wanted to move up from their status of being _just_ a slave. That was how it worked within the Legion, you gained your status through killing, if you hadn’t been lucky like Aurelia that had simply been in the right place at the right time.  
If you wanted a station, you killed the person currently claiming it. This was true both for officers _and slaves_. The girl was making it clear she was planning on killing Aurelia, taking her place – and Vulpes did nothing. Aurelia had just given birth, her body was till healing and she was tired after having carried the child around within her for the last nine months, she hardly got any sleep during the nights from nightmares about her dead baby – she was exhausted and at the same time, some idiot girl fawning after her nonchalant and egoistic husband, was planning to kill her. 

And so Aurelia woke up one day, left Atticus with one of her personal slaves and then dressed in the few profligate clothes she owned under her toga, packed one of Vulpes’ tunics and slipped into her most comfortable sandals. She stole a knife from her husband, as well as a revolver that she shoved down in her small pack and then she simply walked out of the camp. When asked by the guards were she was going, she said she indented to go visit her father on the other side of the Colorado, but before she reached the pier, she took off and headed north towards Utah. 

It was on her way through the dry, vast open lands of Utah that she for the first time came in contact with the Happy Trails Caravan Company, who told her they were taking wares up to Zion. They took her with them, not asking her anything about how a young woman like herself had ended up alone along the I-15. Aurelia took their lack of curiosity as a blessing and enjoyed the safety of several shotguns and the company of fellow travellers.  
When they were about to enter the old National Park, a group of strange looking tribals, who spoke in a way that Aurelia had never heard before, greeted them. She tried to search her mind for something similar that she could have picked up in one of the many books she’d gone through over the years, but found nothing. Their language didn’t even seem to be connected to any of the old native american tribes the books had told about, if not only for their lack of clothes and their darkly pigmented skin from long exposure to the sun and the general elements of the desert. 

It was with a slight hesitation that she followed the caravan and the tribals into the Park and she held a steady hand on her model 19 Smith & Wesson, loaded with .357 magnum bullets. The soft winds made her long dark hair wave and provided her with a cooling feeling against her sweat soaked skin. She had been unused to walking in denim’s and the thick tight fabric made the heat in the desert almost unbearable. She wore a too large tank top on her upper body and underneath, her breasts strained from the milk. She hadn’t thought that plan through when she left. She had been able to bind her bosom tightly, keeping the milk from leaking most of the time, but she needed to change both the bindings and whatever she wore on her upper body at least twice a day. 

It was just outside the Angel Cave that she saw a man she thought she’d never see again during her lifetime and the initial shock at the sight of him, soon changed into a happiness she had seldom ever experienced before. It was him, the Malpais Legate, Joshua Graham. It couldn’t possibly be anyone else – the way he held himself and the way he moved, combined with the clothes he always wore – the white buttoned up shirt, the dark denim’s and a bulletproof vest. They had burned him, covered him in pitch and set him on fire. But it was Graham, and he was alive. Without thinking about what she was doing, she ran over to him and fell at his feet in the proper way a woman greeted a man of the Legion. She heard a sharp intake of air from the legate and soon found him crouching down on the ground before her. 

“Aurelia?” His eyes were filled with questions and for the first time in her life, she thought she saw something close to worry draw over those cold blue eyes.  
“Malpais Legate”, Aurelia bowed her head, “You’re alive, thank the gods”  
“Just Graham now, girl”, he said and touched her shoulder, lifting her chin up with his other hand. He was covered in bandages, from his head down and out over his arms and hands.  
“You burned”, Aurelia gasped and traced her hand over his jawline.  
“Yes, I burned”  
“How are you even…By Mars, you live”, she smiled and she saw something in Grahams eyes that seemed to be close to a smile as well. The white cloth wrapped around him covered his lips and the only thing she could actually see, was his eyes and the small creeks that was still there, at the edges. 

Joshua led her into the Angel Cave and his small living quarters, giving her a mug of prickly pear juice to drink while she explained how she was in the Zion National Park in Utah, and not at Fortification Hill in Arizona. He listened intently to what she said and nodded now and again, then he went on to tell her about how he had been able to survive his unnervingly literal fall from grace and how he’d turned back to the god he served before he met Caesar and founded the Legion. Aurelia didn’t understand his seemingly strong faith in this all seeing, all wise and 'loving' god, but she respected him for the man he had once been and the fact that he had been able to survive. There had been few people she had actually liked as much as she liked Joshua and somehow, it seemed as close to fate as anything, that she had made her way straight to him. So when he offered her to stay for some time, she accepted.

***

“What the _fuck_ did you do, you useless whore?” Vulpes eyes looked homicidal and Iulia was shaking with fear. She had known he was dangerous – they all were, but she had not expected him to react this violent to the news that his stupid wife had up and left. He didn’t even seem to like her, Iulia had just assumed he had been more or less forced to marry her since her father was Aurelius of Phoenix. He had gotten a son by her, why would he want to keep her? Her body was surely destroyed and not near as pretty as her own – Aurelia wasn’t ugly, but she was pale and plump, not fat or unshapely, but Iulia knew she herself was much prettier, with her lean body and olive skin.  
“I didn’t do anything!” Iulia tried to defend herself, but his eyes pierced her, as if he could read her through and through. He grabbed her long sun-bleached hair and tossed her into the heavy desk in his tent and she yelped, the pain from crashing into the heavy furniture pulsating through her body.  
“’Didn’t do anything’”, Vulpes mocked her as he chuckled, still with a violent snarl on his lips. He moved towards her in the most predatory way she had ever seen and she quickly tried to crawl in under the desk to shield herself from him, but it was futile. A strong had grabbed her ankle and dragged her out by her feet and she tried to dig her nails down in the dirt, but he was too strong. “You stupid fucking whore, I’m going to break every bone in your body and toss you to the recruits”, he hissed as he dragged her out of the tent.  
“Stop it! _Please_!” Iulia tried shouting, but her tears and sobs drowned her voice, “I love you, please stop! I didn’t…Didn’t mean for her to leave, please”  
Vulpes merely laughed as he hauled her behind him down to a large pole that had been raised from the ground for use in the punishment of slaves.  
“I didn’t, please, please – don’t-“, Vulpes lifted her up by her hair and backhanded her before she could finish the sentence and her words were drowned out by her screams.  
“Oh, Iulia”, he chuckled with the same maniacal look in his eyes and his teeth showing, “You _knew_ ”  
“No!” she shouted, “Get off me, get off me you monster! No, no, no!”

***


	3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter listening to the Film Score Orchestra's 'For a few dollars more' and 'the Good, the Bad and the Ugly'.   
> Enjoy!

_Shady Sands, New California Republic_

Picus enjoyed life inside the NCR, not that he’d ever admit to it when asked by someone within the Legion, but he had learned through his work as a spy, that there were certain things within the profligate society that just wasn’t the same in the lands controlled by Caesar. There were also things that he missed from back home, the tunics being the thing he thought about most. It sounded completely trivial as he thought about it, that did however not change the fact that he just hated wearing pants. The armor of the NCR was heavy and warm and did little more in terms of protection than the Legion’s armor did. At least your body could breathe more easily in a tunic and baltea – than in leather pants, a jacket and a desert scarf over the fucking obligatory beret. By Mars, he loathed the beret, even though many a lady had commented on how well it suited him, it still just didn’t feel right. 

Shady Sands had turned out to not be completely different to Flagstaff or Phoenix, except it was about twice as large as both cities together. He had a hard time keeping track on all the small narrow alleyways snaking themselves around the backsides of the town center. There were several market squares, a business district and the political and military center where President Kimball used to reside, but was now the home of General Oliver and his wife Nancy. _Nancy_ , a perfectly good fuck for a middle aged woman and she wasn’t at all hard on the eyes – being the perfect picture of a pre-war trophy wife. It hadn’t been too hard for Picus to snake his way in between the first lady’s sheets, seeing as the General was more than twice his own age and Nancy seemed to have acquired a taste for younger, more…virile men.   
Picus had never had any difficulty with women. To be honest, no man within the Legion had, but aside from slaves that were forced to spread their legs for the legionaries, Picus had become quite efficient in attracting the opposite sex. That was one of the reasons he was well suited as a frumentarius, even though he couldn’t measure up to the almost inhuman charisma of his praefectus, Inculta. Picus had other qualities that were highly valuable and Inculta had made sure to reward him well, even at a far away distance. For being a spy that had been on an undercover mission for the last four years, Picus had been bumped up high in the ranks, specially since Vulpes became praefectus and he was now third in command of the Frumentarii, just after the more administrative Alerio. 

Vulpes had informed him that they were to receive some new NCR recruits from the Legion, new spies – it was clear to Picus that the next stage of Caesar’s plan, was more or less a plan of Vulpes Inculta's unconventional mastermind. Infiltrate the NCR and take them down from the inside through means of terrorism and guerrilla warfare. It was a plan that suited Picus perfectly as he could simply continue to do what he did, and go back to sabotaging shit for the Californian bastards. The monorail in Camp McCarran had been beautiful and it had been too long since he had gotten the chance to blow something up. 

He was informed that the recruits would show up sporadically as to not cause suspicion, as well as Vulpes’ own _wife_ , Aurelia. She wouldn’t pose as a recruit, however, but as the new love of Captain Ronald Curtis, though it was important that he kept his relationship going with Nancy Oliver and Picus simply hoped she wouldn’t be the jealous type, if only to cause him just a bit less of a work-load. It was typical of Vulpes to involve his wife in these things, but as Picus understood it, the situation was rather desperate and Aurelia was their one connection to the Enclave-connected doctor Arcade Gannon and as Aurelia also needed to be kept an eye on, she would stay with Picus. It was as good a cover as anything and Picus guessed that it would be hard to argue that she was his baby sister, considering the utter difference in their appearance. Aurelia was pale with clear blue eyes and almost black hair, while he himself had the looks typical of his Hispanic heritage with dark bronzed skin and deep hazel eyes. The only thing they actually had in common, if he remember her looks correctly, was their full lips and it was not much to go on in terms of claiming to be biologically related. 

Hopefully Nancy wouldn’t object too harshly, else he had to argue it was merely for show – that he had grown tired of being bugged about getting married by his colleagues and quite frankly, it had some truth to it.   
It would be strange to all of a sudden share his tiny apartment in the military district with his praefectus’ wife, a woman he had never really spoken to nor hadn’t seen in years. It was a smart move from Vulpes, using a female as a spy – no one suspected the Legion to actually use women in warfare, they all believed them to simply enslave women and use them as breeders, which was true most of the time, but Vulpes had been known within the Legion to make exceptions for women before, using them mostly in New Vegas to gain information. Picus knew that Aurelia had escaped from the Legion once and it was probably why she was being stationed with him, but at the same time, Vulpes must trust her, to even let her out of New Vegas to be partly on her own. But if this Arcade Gannon was as important as Vulpes seemed to think, perhaps it would be worth it. 

Picus walked into one of the more picturesque bars in the culture district of Shady Sands were you could find bars, restaurants, clubs, cinemas and theatres. There usually weren’t too many soldiers on this side of town and it was a welcome pause for Picus to be able to relax by himself for once. He had gotten used to the dual nature of his work, but he still needed time to relax away from all the soldiers at times and since arriving in Shady Sands, this was the best place for such that he had found so far.   
He ordered a cold beer and sat himself down in a dark corner of the bar, leaning back into the worn seat of the chair, sighing to himself and closing his eyes – just enjoying the normalcy of life going on all around him. When Caesar finally decided it was time to call him back, _this_ , he would miss.

***

_New Vegas, Nevada_

“You want me to do _what_ , exactly?” Six looked up at the men before her with a slight surprised and questioning look on her face. She had been summoned to Caesar in his headquarter inside the Lucky 38. It was amazing what they had been able to do to clear out anything that was even remotely decadent. The only original thing left in the entire building, except for some random furniture, was the rug on the floors.   
The eyes of Caesar, Vulpes, Lucius and Lanius were on her as they stood around the throne upon which Caesar sat. Behind her was several officers of varying rank, including her father and a few other centuri still in Vegas to sort out the last of the plans for the western cohorts. 

“There’s no need for you to become worried my dear”, Caesar said in a calm voice and smiled softly to her. He was in one of his good moods today. Their Lord Caesar had become more and more erratic since just before they took the dam and was now having almost daily fits of what Vulpes referred to as ‘headaches’. Six wasn’t stupid, those headaches was why they needed this Gannon-fella and she was more or less the only one who could approach him somewhat unsuspectedly, since they had met before and Boone and the others had told her, when they tried to rescue her that Gannon had helped them gather information on her whereabouts.   
“So…Do I understand my Lord correctly in that you wish me to become close to this medical doctor, Arcade Gannon?” Six was kneeling before Caesar, holding his hand and looking obediently up at him.   
“Yes”, Caesar nodded carefully and rubbed the side of his head.   
“If I may, my Lord”, her husband spoke and Caesar lazily gestured for him to continue speaking. “As our Lord said, wife, there’s nothing for you to worry about. This Arcade Gannon is a known…Deviant, you simply need to befriend him and come close to him. Make him trust you”   
“A deviant?” Six raised an eyebrow looking at Vulpes and then back at Caesar.   
“He takes it up the ass”, Caesar muttered and groaned from irritation or pain – or perhaps both.   
“Yes”, Vulpes filled in, “He is inclined to prefer the company of…men. Such a thing is not banned within the profligate society and you must learn to not react to it with negativity”   
“Of course”, Six nodded with a somewhat perplexed look on her face. She knew that some men in the Legion slept with other men and it was all right as long as they were the, _giver_ , so to say. Some of the men claimed it was more proper to take another man than to take a woman, as long as you never allowed yourself to be on the receiving end – then you would be worse than a woman. “When will I be leaving, if I may ask? My child is still very young and still nursing”, Six asked.   
“You’ll be leaving tomorrow”, Caesar sighed and squeezed her hand.   
“It’s urgent business, Aurelia. I’ll make sure Ferox is well taken care of while you are away”, Vulpes said. “We’ll discuss the details later”   
“Thank you, Lord Caesar”, Six kissed the dictator’s knuckles and bowed her head until he moved his hand for her to lift her chin again and rise. 

Vulpes escorted her back home and when they had entered their floor in the Ultra-Luxe, he told her that they highly suspected that Caesar had a brain-tumor and that they needed Gannon to operate on him in order to save him. It was obvious that this was what had concerned Vulpes as of late, but he hadn’t fully told her of the whole situation. Vulpes didn’t in truth know how much time Caesar had, but no matter the actual outcome of the situation, they would need to have Gannon with the Legion as he had grown up inside the Enclave and knew of both the medical arts, but also had a great tech-knowledge that Vulpes wanted for the Legion. He told Six that he gave her more or less as much time as she needed, but he needed for her to make Gannon fully trust her. When the Legion then took him, they needed the leverage of his friendship to her for when he did operations and other risky things that certainly could be a perfect opportunity for him to accidentally ‘slip’, unless that slip lead to the imminent death of someone the good doctor cared for. 

It was a good plan, sure. Six however, felt nervous about being sent away, far from Vulpes and Ferox, and even further away from Atticus whom she hadn’t even been able to meet yet. But he was safe in Flagstaff and she had been able to speak to a wet-nurse that had just arrived in Vegas from Flagstaff, that could confirm that Atticus was indeed alive and very well under the guidance of the temple priestesses. 

“Where will I live? And how will I even get there? It’s far up north, isn’t it?” Six was nursing Ferox while Vulpes curled her hair between his fingers and watched his second son have his dinner. Ferox thick dark hair had started to grow a bit longer, which Vulpes said had been exactly the same with Atticus. They both had their mother’s almost marble-like pale skin but as Atticus had Six’s eyes, Ferox had gotten more features from his father and his eyes were turning lighter and steelier each day.   
“You’ll live with one of my frumentarius, Picus. He’s known there as Ronald Curtis and has worked undercover inside the NCR for over four years now and has reached the rank of captain. In public, you’re supposed to act as if the two of you are in a relationship, he is however, in a relationship with General Oliver’s wife and that cannot be disrupted”   
“If his relationship with Mrs. Oliver is so important, then why do I need to pretend to be his…woman?” Six frowned and looked at Vulpes.   
“Because you need a reason to be there and also a reason for being let inside the military districts, where Arcade Gannon is working. You will live with Picus in his apartment that’s located within the military district, he will gain you access within the inner circles of the NCR's higher ranks, which will make it easier for you to make contact with Gannon”   
“I understand”, Six nodded, “And you’re sure of this?”   
“Yes, I trust that you will preform your duty to our Lord and to me as well, if you don’t – well,” he cocked his head and stroked her jaw, “I have quite a few spies within the NCR military and political structure watching you, aside from Picus”   
Six looked up at her husband, searching his emotionless face for something she couldn’t really decide what it was. “I’ll make sure you can trust me, husband”   
“Of course you will”, he smiled a somewhat hollow, but not insincere smile.

***

_What the hell was Vulpes thinking?_ Six was being escorted to Shady Sands and of course they needed good and well experienced legionaries for the escort. Six had expected a couple of veterans or praetorians, if not an entire assassination squad in profligate clothing. What did she get? Her fucking father.  
Six refused to even speak to the man during the first hours as they walked out of New Vegas and started their trek north. It was really strange seeing Aurelius without his armor and it would be an overstatement to say that he looked comfortable in cargo pants, a t-shirt and a mercenary military cap, but at least it made him look more human than when he wore his galea. Six herself was dressed like she had been when she walked out of Goodsprings, the same denims and military boots as then, as well as her Stetson and one of Vulpes' t-shirts. She had a long coat in her pack and a scarf around her neck and road-goggles over her eyes. Instead of a caravan shotgun, Vulpes had given her a revolver that was strapped to her hip and down her thigh. She had a combat knife tucked down into her boot in case she would need to engage in close combat. However, Aurelius was to take care of anything that felt like attacking them on the way, which could be quite a lot of things. Thankfully, he was better equipped than Six, with a machete, a 10mm pistol and a semi-automatic Remington 1100. At least she could agree with Vulpes and Caesar’s choice to have her bastard father escort her, since he at least was an highly effective fighter and one of the most dangerous legionaries they had, except for the legate himself. The trip to Shady Sands would take them little over a week and Six was so pissed off she almost steamed.

Aurelius didn’t try to coax her into talking as he walked beside her, but it seemed he couldn’t keep himself from smirking at her every once in a while and the more Six tried to ignore him, the angrier she grew. When she had kept her silence for half the day, she stopped and let out a groan of frustration, which made Aurelius stop and turn to look at her with a smug smile.   
“What?” he smirked.   
“Why did you agree to escort me?” Six walked up to her father with determined steps, at least trying to make herself as big as possible in comparison to him. It was futile, since Aurelius was a large, tall, well built man and in surprisingly good shape for his age.   
He chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest, “What makes you think I had a choice?”   
“You may be a child-fucking cannibal, but you're one of Caesar’s most valued centurions – if anyone besides the praefecti has a choice, it would be you”, she said, frowning.   
“If you think being valued by Caesar gives you more freedom, you’re dead wrong, girl”, he snorted. “If our Lord tells us to do something, we do it. There ain’t nothing even close to having a choice in the matter. How lenient is that husband of yours, really?”   
Six just snorted right back at him, staring at him with angry eyes. “You’re a fucking bastard”   
“Yep”   
“A fucking mother-killing rapist bastard”, she spat.   
“Well, yeah”, he shrugged.   
“You’re not even going to deny killing my mother?”   
That made him laugh loudly, “Why the hell should I? It’s the truth”   
“Motherfucker!” Six roared and flew at him, all the anger that had been boiling within her releasing at once, throwing her fists at his dense chest and kicking his shins. She didn’t even manage to make him move, he stood his ground while she kicked and screamed, spat and snarled. After a few minutes, he just lifted her up over his shoulder and began walking again. 

“What the fuck are you doing? Put me down!” Six spat and started to pound his back with her fists, kicking her feet, but soon a heavy arm hindered her from moving her legs. “Let go of me!”   
“Shut up, Aurelia”, he answered dryly but she could almost hear the smirk on his lips.   
“Fucking bastard!”   
After another few minutes, Six was starting to become tired from trying to wriggle herself loose and pounding her fists into Aurelius back and so she gave in and allowed herself to just hang over his shoulder while being carried. 

“Given up?” he asked with a chuckle.   
“Fuck you”, she pouted.   
“Only if you ask nicely, I’ve never fucked one of my daughters before”  
“Disgusting pig, you wouldn’t dare”   
“Wanna bet?” he said and smacked her ass as she lay over his shoulder. “I should at least have you punished for that attitude of yours. How Vulpes puts up with you, I can’t even begin to imagine. If it was up to me, you would have been nailed to a cross long ago”   
Six snarled from behind his back, digging her nails into his back in an attempt to cause him at least some discomfort.   
“Stop it Aurelia, you’ll only make me hard”, he grinned and she immediately drew her hands back, feeling nauseated.   
“If you touch me, I’ll make sure Vulpes has you killed”, she seethed.   
“Fair enough” 

Aurelius did leave her alone, at least physically. It was hard being left alone while trekking through the desert and a large part of Nevada together and at the same time be left completely alone. She had to talk to him now and again, but she was thankful he wasn’t keen on small talk.   
Just between Nellis Air Force Base and the ruins of Tonopah, they were attacked by a gang of psycho-ed up raiders, springing out from the rusty skeletons of pre-war cars and trucks along route 95. Aurelius pulled Six down behind a turned over truck and began shooting at them from a longer range with his 10mm, but as they closed in, obviously without any fear for their own lives, as the shot up junkies they were, Aurelius had to pull out his semi-automatic shotgun, firing rapidly as six snuck behind another turned over car to get at their attackers from another angle.

The recoil from her revolver always seemed to surprise her, it was as if shortly after she’d fired a shot, she forgot how much it tugged into her arms every time she pulled the trigger – but she had a good aim and after what felt like only a few seconds, she saw Aurelius dart out and attack the last of the raiders hiding behind a larger truck, with his machete. When he whistled for her, she crept out of her hiding spot behind the car.   
“This is Caesar’s lands, where the hell did they come from?” Six holstered her Smith & Wesson, looking up at Aurelius who was wiping off his machete on one of the corpses.   
“California”, he said and kicked the corpse he had just wiped his machete on. “Better get used to it, the NCR don’t exactly keep their roads clear from this kind of filth”   
“Ugh, wonderful”, Six rolled her eyes and Aurelius chuckled.   
“Let’s go”, he said and sheathed his machete. 

During the nights, they took turns keeping watch and as Aurelius slept, Six sat with his shotgun over her lap and stared up into the dark night sky. When you were in the middle of nowhere, the sky was impossibly clear and it felt like you could see every star up there. Six thought about the fact that humans before the war had been up there, in space. Vulpes had even told her a man had put an American flag on the moon. At first, she called bullshit, but know-it-all as her husband was, he had to grab an old encyclopedia and show her, with a picture and everything. ‘How did they even take the picture?’, she had asked and he had rolled his eyes to her infantile stupidity, ‘They were up there, weren’t they?’. It was still almost a bit too fantastical for Six to believe it. If you went up there, would it mean you were closer to the gods? Because even if she sometimes thought the mere idea of the gods existing was irrational, some very primal part of her couldn’t deny the sensibility in something more, beyond their own wasted existence. 

As she watched the tumbleweeds draw by their little hollowed out cave, she looked out over the dry wasteland surrounding her and then she looked at Aurelius, her father, laying on his bedroll, silently sleeping with a lightness that seemed typical for all soldiers – ready to jump up at the faintest sound of an attacker or some kind of danger. She really knew very little of her father, except for what everyone else knew. She didn’t know if she really cared to know more about him – he was a pig, one of the worst misogynists in the Legion. From what she had learned during her time with the profligates – the Legion hated women. To some degree, she agreed. It was difficult, however, since the case was so much more complex, it had more to do with a difference in how one viewed the sexes and Six could imagine having grown up in a profligate culture, seeing how things were within the Legion must be shocking. But to a woman having grown up in that culture, she thought herself able to see the truth of how things worked even in the ‘equal’ culture of the profligates – and she didn’t think it was really that different. The men were the same, look at Benny, for example. He had used her, obviously sweet-talked her into marrying him, and then he’d shot her and buried her in a shallow grave. His own wife. How was that better than Aurelius killing her mother?   
Boone had killed his wife as well, claiming it was better than her being taken as a slave by the Legion. Why hadn’t he tried to rescue her? He had just skimped down to a sniper’s nest above Cottonwood Cove and shot her, without even trying. What kind of a man did that? 

_No matter which side they were on, they were all the same_ , Six thought to herself as she stared up at the stars. _I’m a woman from Caesar’s lands, the daughter of a centurion and the wife of a frumentarius. I have two living sons who will grow up to become legionaries, like their father and grandfather. Who’s to say they would have had it better growing up within the NCR, or in DC? Who’s to say, the choices I’ve made, are worse than any other choices being made every day through out the wasteland, through out the entire world?_   
Six sighed and leaned back against the cool rock, stroking the shotgun in her lap, thinking that the choices she’s made or the choices that has been made for her, are what they are. The past is just that – the past, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

***


	4. Boots Made For Walking

_Shady Sands, New California Republic_

The young woman who walked into Shady Sands together with a civil dressed Aurelius of Phoenix was not the kind of woman that Picus had expected. What had he expected? He couldn’t rightly say, but not _her_. 

She entered through the guarded gates of the city with determined steps. The guards hardly glanced at her passport, being to busy eyeing her up and down with slacked jaws, drooling over her tight dark denim’s clenching her rounded hips and curvaceous legs from where a large .357 magnum revolver was holstered and fastened around her thigh – drawing your eyes to between her legs. On her upper body she wore a tank top under an all too tight half-opened shirt, half-tucked down into her jeans, and it was obvious that the shirt was too small around her breasts – she hadn’t even bothered trying to button it up all the way. On her head she wore a worn black Stetson and her long dark, wavy hair curled in the ends and reached down to the small of her back. Then he saw her smirk, the small smug curl of her pouting full lips, framed by what looked like almost marble white soft cheeks and then, those large – blue – eyes that he remembered from years ago. She had definitely aged, and it was in the most marvelous way possible. When he’d last seen her, she couldn’t have been older than 15 or 16, she was still but a girl back then. The person searching the market place spreading out before her, was a woman, a full-grown woman in all her glory.

Aurelius walked behind her, nonchalantly carrying what looked like a semi-automatic shotgun over his shoulder, armed to the teeth and staring at the guards with a look that would turn them into burning piles of ashes, if looks could possibly have that kind of ability. Picus was uncertain if Aurelius didn’t possess it, after all, as the guards recoiled at the sight of his burning stare. 

Picus walked towards her, dressed in his usual captain’s uniform and stopped just in front of her.   
“Welcome to Shady Sands miss, what brings you here?” Picus smiled his most charming smile towards her and she immediately seemed to pick up on it, casting a glace his small nametag.   
“Well, sir, who wouldn’t want to visit the great metropolis at least once”, Aurelia smiled.   
“That’s very true, miss. Might I be so bold as to ask you for your name?” Picus grinned and tried not to eye her too much in the company of the centurion.   
“Ivy Zeigel”, she said and bit her lower lip. Had she been this flirtatious when he met her all those years ago? With a husband like Vulpes and a father like the homicidal man standing just behind her, he was surprised with her daring charade and couldn’t even imagine her behaving like this in New Vegas.   
“A pleasure to meet you, miss Ivy. I’m captain Ronald Curtis”  
“Yeah, you’ve got a nametag, you know”, she winked. Picus chuckled at that.   
“Where are you staying? I could help escort you, since this must be your first visit to the city?”   
“Such a gentleman!” Aurelia exclaimed and then turned to Aurelius, “Thank you kindly for helping me to the city – I believe I’ll be fine from here on out”   
Aurelius grunted and nodded towards Picus, who nodded back and then turned his attention back to Aurelia as the centurion seemed to relax somewhat and left. 

Picus escorted her to his apartment in the military district and as she was entering the militarized zone with him, they didn’t ask for her passport, she had already – kind of – shown it at the gate when she entered the city, but every time within NCR-lands when you entered a military zone, you had to identify yourself. They didn’t say much to each other during the walk from the market square close to the city gates, as Aurelia seemed too busy with just looking at the city around her. He remembered how he'd felt when he saw it for the first time, it had almost been a shock. He didn’t think he’d ever see a wasteland city larger than Phoenix or grander than New Vegas, but Shady Sands were that and more. It had been built up from nothing one hundred years ago. Before the war, there was really nothing here and it had started out as a simple settlement – now Shady Sands housed over half a million NCR citizens.   
While Aurelia was busy trying to keep her eyeballs in place looking at the buildings towering around her, Picus tried not to be too obvious about staring at her tits as they bounced with every step she took, or the swaying of her hips. He didn’t even want to imagine how this woman would look in a tight dress, the thought of only imagining it making his cock twitch.

***

Well, wasn’t captain Ronald Curtis a handsome one? Even if she had met him before, she didn’t remember him and she certainly hadn’t met him since she had taken the bullets to her head. A man like Picus, she was sure she would have remembered. He was gorgeous, looking like he came from a tribe further down south as his skin was a dark but soft bronze and his eyes deeply hazel. He was tall and had a face of sharp features with high cheekbones and perky lips and slightly angled eyes. He wore a beret, but from what she could see, he had his pitch black hair in a rough but dapper kind of hairstyle she’d never seen on a legionary before. It didn’t look like a pompadour, but it looked to be slightly longer in the front and on top of his head and then cropped short on the sides and in the neck.

As he escorted her through the city into what she guessed was the military district and his apartment, she was almost flabbergasted by the towering buildings, there were so many of them. Sure, few building were as tall as the ones in New Vegas and the buildings in Shady Sands weren’t nearly as tall as the large casino’s back home – but they were tall enough and they stretched on forever. How could people keep track of this many alleys? And the people, gods, they were everywhere. If it wasn’t soldiers, it was civilians dressed in everything from plain suits, beautiful and colorful dresses, to ragged dirty clothes that looked as if they had seen better days even before the war. Before they entered the military district, she noticed people sitting in the corners of several buildings, shouting after the people who walked past. She had never seen anything like it – did they have slaves here? In that case, why did they just sit on their asses? How very odd, and hypocritical considering the constant anti-Legion propaganda about them being slavers and monsters. 

Picus lead her up five long flights of stairs inside a building that Six thought must have been at least ten stories high. It didn’t have any elevators, since it was built after the Great War, as Picus explained to her. She was then lead through two long, slim corridors and then Picus stopped in front of a red door, unlocking it and gesticulating for her to enter.   
What met her inside the door was a tiny apartment with a small kitchen in one of the corners and a bed in the other corner. Windows covered an entire wall and it looked like he had a tiny little room on the other side of the windows as well, kind of half outside, half inside. Then she saw a couch with a low table in front of it as well as two chairs. The apartment was very tiny, but well kept and seemed to be clean enough. Small living spaces was nothing strange if your were used to living in military camps and Six was happy to actually have a couch she could sleep in.   
Picus took her pack and set it down on the couch and walked over to another door just next to the kitchen.   
“Bathroom’s in here, there’s a shower, but if you shower for too long, the warm water runs out”   
Six nodded, peaking inside the small bathroom. It was covered in teal-colored tiles and the light from the mirror over the faucet buzzed in the same way as the lights did in the bathrooms she had at home in Vegas. Come to think of it, she had about five bathrooms at home and they were all more than three times as big. But, she wasn’t going to complain – the luxuries she had in Vegas would still be there when she got back with Gannon wrapped around her finger. 

“So,” Picus said with a smirk, “Do you want something to drink? Eat? I thought we could go out for dinner tonight, let you have a look at the most interesting parts of the city”   
Six bowed her head and nodded, thinking that she needn’t fall to her knees at least, or did she? – Picus was still a rather high ranking legionary and she needed to show him respect.   
“Well?” he asked.   
“Yes, sir?”   
“We’re in NCR controlled lands, Aurelia. I think it will be easier if we just try to act like the prof…like normal citizens as much as possible. Women of the NCR are, as you perhaps know, more free-spoken and don’t follow the decorum of women under Caesar. You need to think about that, specially out in public – I thought you did a very fine job doing just that while entering the city, keep that up, will you?”   
Six looked up at Picus who smiled, looking back at her, “Sure”  
“Now, what kind of clothes do you have?”   
“Uh, these? Kind of? Vulpes gave me a half a library worth of NCR dollar bills, they’re here somewhere”, Six turned and walked over to her pack and started digging around. “Suppose I ought to buy some clothes, right?”   
“Yes, perhaps it would be a good idea”, he grinned. She couldn’t exactly tell why he was grinning – her clothes weren’t that bad, were they? This is how she had looked when she last wandered around the wasteland. But she guessed she needed a few dresses and skirts, and some proper underwear. Vulpes had always been particular about wearing the right kind of underwear to the profligates clothes – otherwise it wouldn’t look proper. “Clean yourself up a little and I’ll take you down to the shopping district – you’ve worn pre-war dresses and such before, right?”   
“Yeah, in Vegas before the Legion annexed it”, Six nodded.   
“Perfect, then you’ll know what to look for” 

Picus guided her to what he called the ‘Shopping district’, which was a market square filled with small stores selling everything from furniture to frying pans, clothes, shoes and make up, jewelry and so many different kinds of soap Six thought someone was joking.   
Six found a store that seemed to specialize in women’s clothing and while Picus sat bored, sweating in his NCR uniform in an armchair in a corner of the store, Six thought that she had ended up in a paradise of colors and different fabrics. One of the women in the store took her measurements and then picked out both silk and cotton underwear for her. Six had only worn silk underwear before so she settled for two sets in pearl white and salmon pink, even though they cost more. When she realized how much money Vulpes had sent with her, she almost fainted. Picus had only shrugged and helped with how much she would need to buy herself some proper clothes, which ended up not even being a tenth of the money she had with her.   
As she counted and bartered the prizes of the dresses and underwear, she was able to buy herself three dresses and two tight skirts that went down just below her knees, a blouse and a small handbag – and she still had enough money left for at least two pair of heels. 

After her over-excessive shopping spree, Picus dropped her off at his apartment and returned to his work for a few hours. Six took a shower and tried on her new clothes, walking around in her heels trying to get the hang of it again. She had bought one lower pair of heels, just to be safe – but then she had seen a higher pair of black leather heels that the storeowner had called ‘Peep-toe shoes’ and they were just beautiful. Six made sure her toes looked nice enough and rooted around Picus' bathroom drawers, finding his shaving-knife so she could shave her legs. She hadn’t even thought about it when she left New Vegas, since she always used Vulpes' knife to shave her legs and armpits. Vulpes had thought her strange for doing it, but she had seen pictures of women from before the war and they always had smooth legs – not legs filled with black hair, so she shaved it off and ended up very satisfied with the way it looked. 

Then she curled her hair from her temples and up onto the top of her head, into what they had called ‘Victory Rolls’ in the pre-war times, it was her favorite hairstyle and it was a style that just seemed to sit just right in her hands. She had put her hair up like that the night she went to Vulpes at the Ultra-Luxe when she just had arrived in New Vegas and sought him out and it had been as if her hands worked by themselves without her even thinking about what she was doing.   
She decided to wear a white blouse and the fishbone grey skirt with a slim belt around her waist, simple but proper and modest. First however, she needed to fight her way into her underwear and to do that, she needed to at least get some milk out from her breasts. It was a tedious process, but if she didn’t empty them twice a day, they would start to hurt and leak. The medical slave in New Vegas that was the acting midwife had told her that the milk would stop coming after a few months if she stopped breast feeding – but it had only been a week since she last fed Ferox and she still needed to empty her swollen bosom.

***

When Picus returned to the apartment, Six was dressed and finished and sat in the couch drinking a Sarsaparilla she had found in the refrigerator and as she rose up to greet Picus out of habit, he held his hand up to stop her.  
“Remember what I said?” he smiled, “Here, men rise to greet the women – not the other way around”  
“It’ll take some time for me to get used to it, it was easier when I’d just woken up and couldn’t remember a thing, then I just did what everybody else did” Six sighed, straightening her skirt out.  
“You’ll get the hang of it”, Picus said and took of his beret, ruffling his hair a little. “The clothes look good on you”, he said over his shoulder as he began to peel off his armor.  
Six sat back down in the couch and flipped through one of the pre-war magazines on the table. “Thank you”, she smiled, “You don’t think these shoes are too much? I just couldn’t help myself, but I don’t know if they’re proper” she said and stretched out her leg, showing Picus the peep-toe shoes she had bought.  
Picus grinned and eyed her, looking first at her feet and legs, and then back up her face and she thought she could see something mischievous in his dark eyes. “They suit you”, he grinned.  
“Good”, she answered, drawing her leg back in and smiled somewhat victoriously.

When Picus had showered and changed, he dressed in a pair of slim slacks and a white shirt. He rolled up the arms of the shirt, considering the heat outside lingered during the evening. In the desert the cold came quickly, inside a city like Shady Sands, it stayed longer inbetween the houses and Six was glad she had chosen to wear a thin blouse, had she gone for one of the dresses with sleeves, she would have been drenched in sweat only halfway to the restaurant. It was the middle of summer and even the coolness of the evenings were hot. 

As they strolled through the dirt streets of Shady Sands old town and cultural district, Six’s eyes just wouldn’t close. There were so much to take in and she was so fascinated, she felt almost tired as she looked around herself constantly. She heard Picus chuckle a little as she stopped to gasp at a brass statue in the middle of a smaller square, or an especially large building somewhere else. Picus was pleasant to talk to and he was a good conversationalist, mostly being busy this evening with telling her about the different sights around them, talking about the history of the city and what was important to know, what different places were important and where she would find certain items.   
Six held his arm as they walked and she couldn’t help herself as she got a little flustered by the heat coming off of him – it was inappropriate, but there was something about his charming ways that reminded her of…Goddamn Benny. _Bastard_! Six thought to herself, trying to shake the thought away – Picus was not some New Vegas gangster, he was a legionary, a frumentarius and she was here on a mission. She needed to get a grip, get a hold of herself – not get caught up in their pretend courting game. Sure, he was charming and kind, but it was all to keep up their cover so they could both do their duties to Caesar.   
Should Six be arrested by the NCR military, she would be deemed as much a spy as Picus or anyone else Vulpes sent in to gather information – the only difference was, she was not a legionary. But a spy, that she had become. And a spy just couldn’t get caught up, because then that spy would be certain to end up with a .300 magnum in her skull and that, she just wouldn’t survive. At least Kimball hadn’t and even though she seemed rather good at defying death, nobody was _that_ good – not even her husband. 

The dinner was pleasant and Six got to practice drinking alcohol for the first time in months. She avoided the cocktails and kept to sweet wine, at least it didn’t taste like gasoline and it was easier to keep track on the intoxication than if she drank hard liquor. Picus kept up his charming ways and while they had their dinner, several soldiers in both armor and civil clothes came round to greet them – and Picus, true to his mission, introduced her as a ‘ _miss Ivy Zeigel, who’s just arrived here from New Reno_ ’. New Reno was now officially the last NCR hold-out in Nevada, except for Nellis Air Force Base, but the base was held by the Boomers – an extremely aggressive tribe of former vault dwellers who had gotten their hands on some heavy aircraft artillery. Caesar had agreed to leave them alone, if they stopped attacking Legion forces closing in on their borders, and so the Boomers remained a small enclave within Caesar’s lands. At least for now. 

Six noticed that quite a few ladies eyed Picus with interest as they had their dinner and he wasn’t shy about looking back. It was amusing to watch, but also a little comforting in that he played his role well and his eyes kept wandering back to her. He treated her like she’d imagined girls were threated when they went on ‘dates’ in pre-war times. Vulpes had treated her in a similar fashion at home sometimes, cooking for her and pampering her, but it didn’t occur very often, only when he was in a specially good and relaxed non-crazy mood. He could be a very loving husband, when he wanted to. 

She sipped her glass of wine and looked around the dim-lit restaurant, it had an almost Vegas-like atmosphere. Not as luxurious as the Ultra-Luxe had been when she came there for the first time, but the lighting and the smooth jazzy music gave it a similar feel. The food had been good, the vegetables were fresh, though they seemed to eat a lot of meat in California. Almost every dish on the menu had Brahmin meat in it, but they hardly used any peppers of any kind. The food she had become used to was flavored with jalapeños, red chilies and bell peppers, filled with different greens and edible cacti. 

Six decided that even though Shady Sands was vastly different from New Vegas, especially under Legion rule – she kind of liked it. She chose to ignore the raving drunkards she hadn’t missed since her first time on the Strip, the junkies hiding in the corners and back alleys and the prostitutes that came out when the darkness of the evening fell of the city. Instead she took in the pre-war music and the beautiful lights glimmering and glistening in the darkness, the murmuring sound of people discussing different subjects whilst drinking themselves intoxicated on sweet wine and bourbon.   
It was different, but not necessarily that bad. At least it wasn’t as decadent as New Vegas had been before the annexation.

***


	5. Battle Hymn of the Republic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When reading this chapter, I suggest tuning in to Enclave Radio from Fallout 3, to get the right feel while visiting General Oliver and his old lady.    
>  Here's a link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9lsRcBv1NU

Six woke up on the couch in Picus’ apartment, stretching out her legs and arms, yawning as her body adapted to her being awake. She’d been in Shady Sands now for almost a week and Picus had spent more nights away from the apartment than in it. Six figured it was due to a combination of work – and sleeping with the general’s wife. She didn’t actually know what kind of work a captain did, except keeping track of new recruits and educating them in armed battle. Perhaps that included nighttime work as well? Six had no idea. Right now, she simply spent her days strolling around Shady Sands, getting to know the city and taking in all the sights. Sometimes it was in the company of Picus, other times by herself. It was a lot for her to take in, all the different districts, the culture and just the way things worked in NCR society. 

She had found a little restaurant just off the military district that they called a “Diner”, she had seen the likes of it out in the deserted wasteland, but they were just abandoned pre-war skeletons that sometimes housed raiders or predatory animals. This was an actual working restaurant in which they served snacks, lighter dishes and baked goods. She had been there the other day and had a barrel cactus fruit pie and it had been some of the best things she’d ever eaten – and so she decided she would go there today to see if they served the pie to day as well.  
The men and soldiers around the city tended to flirt with her as she strolled through the streets, she didn’t quite know how to handle it – she found that when she was escorted by Picus, they more often than not left her alone. But when she was by herself, some of them even whistled or shouted after her. At first, it had scared her. A man whistling or shouting after her, usually meant that she had done something wrong – comments about her appearance suggested danger, if it came from recruits that obviously had no idea who she was or who her husband was. What worried her here, was that absolutely _no one_ knew who she was or who she was married to, nobody except Picus and possibly some other spies she didn’t know how to identify. Vulpes probably wanted it that way, so she kept herself on her best behavior and didn’t try anything. 

After she’d visited the diner, that to her great satisfaction indeed had a few slices of that delicious pie, she strolled down a slim alleyway that went behind the military district, which seemed to lead to what at first looked like some kind of hidden garden. The sight of green bushes and perky flowers peaked Six’s curiosity, the rest of the city was beautiful in its way, but it was very brown and grey during daytime. As she followed the alleyway, suddenly Picus walked out in front of her, looking about as surprised as herself at meeting him in a back alley. He was in the company of what looked like two recruits. 

“Ivy, what a surprise to meet you here”, Picus smiled, “You’re not lost are you?”  
“Captain Curtis”, Six gasped, “Oh no, at least I don’t believe I am”  
Picus pulled her into his arms and placed a light kiss on her lips. “I was just on my way to you, we have been invited to attend an officer’s dinner tonight”  
“Really? How lovely”, Six smiled and tried not to blush too much from the surprising kiss.  
“It’s a modest dress code, but I’m sure you’ll dress up in a most glamorous way, won’t you?” he winked, still holding her close to him with an arm around her waist.  
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint”, Six smirked, looking up into the deeply brown eyes of Picus, fumbling a little with the collar of his uniform. The recruits stood behind Picus and seemed determined to look anywhere but at Six and the captain.  
“I’m not sure a woman like you can disappoint, miss Zeigel”, Picus looked amused.  
Six giggled like she’d seen other women do, when _wooed_ , “I’ll see you later this evening, then?”  
“Naturally”, Picus nodded slowly and then let go of Six’s waist.  
“Until later, Captain”, Six winked. She was getting better at this. It had helped to sit in the diner and around the culture district just watching how other people interacted – then again, Picus made it all much easier. She had noticed she found it harder to act flirtatious around other men, no matter how charming they seemed.

***

The officer’s dinner was held in the grand presidential residence in which the General and his wife lived. It was a large mansion within the military district that was walled in and as you entered through the gates, a large courtyard first met you. Beyond the courtyard, the large mansion spread out, with NCR-flags waving from several windows together with old American flags.  
Picus escorted Six with a hand around her waist, he had complimented her on her choice of dress – a black cocktail dress with a slim waist and quarter long sleeves. Six had chosen to let her hair fall down over her shoulders and just pull her bangs back over her head in a curling fashion. Picus was dressed in his khaki NCR-service dress and he had let out a litany of swearing before they left his apartment, due to the fact that he still needed to wear a beret, even while in more formal attire.

The general’s mansion was lavishly decorated and filled with officers of different ranks, who were both men and women, but predominantly men. Very few of the female officers seemed to have brought company, but almost all of the male officers had a civil dressed woman hanging from their arm. All around the representation quarters in which the dinner was being held, old tunes from the American Civil War was playing from holodisks. Those songs were so old it was hard for Six to even imagine what time must have been like then, but she recognized a few of the songs – how or why, she didn’t know. The only music that was allowed within the Legion was trumpets making fanfares or the banging on drums during the beginning of battles. Pre-war popular music wasn’t banned, exactly, but almost nobody had a radio and there weren’t any radio broadcastings within Caesar’s lands, so it mainly worked itself out.  
The favorite tune for the evening seemed to be ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ and as Six stood, emerged into Picus arms and slowly sipping a cocktail, listening to the tune being played over and over, she watched Nancy Oliver mingle around the room – throwing careful glances their way every once in a while – until the general himself approached Picus and Six, then the first lady decided to follow her husband’s lead for an official meet and greet. 

“General Oliver, sir”, Picus saluted in what Six thought was the strangest way. He lifted his arm as a legionary would, but then brought his hand in towards his head, angled it and placed it just above his right eyebrow. What was even stranger, was that the general, who was the de facto president over the entire NCR, saluted Picus in the exact same way. In the Legion, a higher-ranking officer or commander never saluted a lower ranking legionary the same way as they had been saluted. A legionary of higher rank being saluted, received the salutation by lifting his hand in greeting.  
“At ease, Captain”, the general spoke and Picus relaxed his stance and brought his arm down again and around Six’s waist. “I’m glad to see that you were able to attend tonight, you’ve been keeping busy the new recruits, I’ve been told?”  
“Yes, sir. There’s a steady inflow of recruits from all over the lands that Caesar’s Legion has seized”, Picus spoke in a strained voice, not at all the normally charming self he usually held up in public – and when they were alone, now that Six thought about it.  
“It gladdens me to hear”, the general chuckled and patted Picus on the shoulder. “Now, who’s this lovely desert flower that you’ve brought with you?” Oliver said and let his eyes rest on Six.  
“Pardon my manners, sir. This is Miss. Ivy Zeigel, she recently arrived in Shady Sands from New Reno. This is General Lee Oliver and his lovely wife, Nancy”, Picus said and nodded towards Six.  
Six reached out her hand towards general Oliver, “A pleasure to meet you both, General Oliver, Nancy”, Six said and nodded once to the general and then once to Nancy as well. The general took her hand and kissed Six’s knuckles. Strange, it’s the other way around back home – men don’t kiss women while greeting them, unless its their mothers – well, not even then, really, Six thought to herself.  
“Zeigel? That name sounds familiar”, the general mused, looking to his wife and then back to Six.  
“Yes, I got the name from my late ex-husband”, Six tried to keep an even smile and Picus raised a questioning eyebrow towards her.  
“I believe it was the surname of the former boss of the Chairmen in New Vegas”, Nancy winked towards Six.  
“Indeed”, Six nodded, “I was married to Benny Zeigel at one point, but then I heard he disappeared and I was able to have him declared dead by the NCR”  
“Oh yes, so we heard. There were rumors about him being taken by the Legion”, Nancy looked a little regretful, “But, New Reno? How exciting!” Nancy exclaimed in a high-pitched but sultry voice and looked at Six, “What did you do there?”  
“I worked as a waitress”, Six smiled. _Lies, lies_.  
“Oh, how glamorous, they say now that Caesar has annexed New Vegas, New Reno is the last outpost we have for old world glamour”, Nancy got a slightly sad look about her, but quickly regained her wits and continued to blabber on.

Nancy was indeed a handsome woman, as Picus had told Six. A bit older, but her husband must be in the same age as Caesar, so in comparison to him, she was still quite young. Perhaps around 40 years old, but looking amazing considering her age. Picus couldn’t be very much older than Six herself, not over 25 at least and somehow Six liked the idea of Nancy getting her rocks of with the young gorgeous captain. She was so used to older men having younger women and you hardly ever saw the opposite – at least not in public and certainly not in the Legion. 

Nancy had coiffed blonde hair with light strands of ashen hair, drawn up in a large bun on top of her head. Her skin was lightly sun kissed, but not vulgarly so and her eyes was a light shade of amber, which Six hadn’t seen before. She was tall, a few inches taller than Six and her body was lean in her crème colored cocktail dress. She wore beads in her ears and around her neck, matching the color of her dress – she simply looked regal in a way Six wished she herself would look when she was Nancy’s age. 

Six kept close to Picus at all times, carefully feeling her way around the people gathered inside the mansion, getting herself introduced by Picus, who seemed to gloat her at his side, looking rather smug when he introduced her, constantly keeping a secure hand on her round hip. Six unconsciously melted into his grasp and let herself be escorted around. Picus played the part of being a newly enamored officer well, kissing her neck and teasingly whispering things in her ear – however, what he really whispered were more about relaying information concerning the different people present, but he did it with a mischievous smirk on his lip and a hand that sometimes fell slightly too low from her waist, just brushing over her buttocks from time to time. His touch made Six blush and maybe that is what he wanted, she wasn’t really known to be a great actress within the Legion – that was Vulpes’ job. But Six tried her best with stroking Picus chest and laugh shyly when he whispered something to her. Leaning into him and stroking her fingers over his sinewy, large hands. 

After two courses, her stupid breasts had the awful timing Six would have expected, as they started to hurt and soon, it almost became so bad Picus was starting to throw her concerned looks as they sat beside each other at the long table.  
“What’s the matter?” he whispered to her.  
“It’s…Embarrassing”, Six said under her breath.  
“Women’s issues?” he asked silently.  
“Uh…Something like that. It’s, well, I’m still nursing”  
He got a questioning look on his face, until it seemed as if he realized what she meant.  
“You need to visit the ladies room?”  
“The what?” Six frowned.  
“Bathroom”  
“Oh”, Six sniggered slightly, “Yes, do you know where it is?”  
“Yes, I’ll show you”, Picus excused them and rose from the table, escorting Six out of the large dining hall, through a few corridors until they arrived in front of two doors with signs on them, indicating that they had different bathrooms for men and women. It had been the same in Vegas when it was still held by the tribal families and Mr. House – the Legion however, didn’t separate the bathrooms between the sexes, it was just toilets and showers.  
“I’ll wait for you outside”, Picus said and leaned against the wall just outside the toilet.  
“It might take a while”, Six warned him, as she opened the door.  
“It’s all right, there’s no rush”, Picus smiled towards her. 

It took quite some time to get her upper body out of her dress and then stroking her breasts warm, getting the milk flowing so she could empty them somewhat, relieving herself of some strain at least. Her bosom kept being swollen and aching and she wished it would just stop, she was getting tired of having to milk herself twice a day – couldn’t her body just understand that Ferox was far away and had a wet-nurse that provided him with his meals.  
When she was finished, she packed her breasts back into her bra and pulled her arms back in through her sleeves, struggling to get the zipper all the way up her back. ‘Damn it!’ Six hissed.  
She opened the door to peak out and see if Picus was still waiting for her – he was. He arched a questioning eyebrow when he noticed her peaking out.  
“Could you help me, please? I can’t get my zipper up fully”, Six whispered and Picus pushed himself away from the wall, looking around himself and entered the ‘ladies’ room, locking the door behind him.  
“I didn’t want to go out, even outside the bathroom, without having it completely pulled up, in case someone would see my brand”, Six whispered.  
“Good thinking”, Picus nodded as he pulled the zip up.  
“Thank you”, Six smiled and looked at them both in the mirror in front of her. She could feel Picus' hands lingering on her back and as she looked at him through the mirror, she could see something different in his eyes as he looked back at her.  
Was she intoxicated, or why was her stomach all of a sudden filled with butterflies? Why was she sweating? It wasn’t warm in here, they had air-condition shielding them from the Californian summer heat, but she was almost shaking from the heat inside the bathroom. Picus hands wandered down over her back and around her waist, to her stomach – his touch was light, investigating, searching and when his hands graced her arms, she turned around and his lips were on hers in an instant. His lips were eager, just as hers and she answered his every movement and as she parted his lips with her own, his tongue quickly entered the opening between her lips. He tasted sweet from wine and combined with the soft smell of his aftershave, her head felt dizzy. His arms clasped around her back and he stroked her neck as his kisses deepened. Her arms were around his neck and she pushed herself against him and he let out a throaty moan when she pushed against his hardened crotch.  
Six suddenly realized what she was doing and quickly pulled back, wiping her lips with her hand, panting, looking up at Picus, who looked quite shaken himself.  
“This can’t happen”, Six breathed quietly.  
“I know”, Picus answered and pulled his fingers through his hair.  
“It…It didn’t, right?”  
“Nope”, Picus shook his head. 

They stood there for a moment, just watching each other in silence, until Picus cleared his throat and turned to unlock the door, but before she could even think about what she did, Six reached out for him and drew him back, planting her lips on his again. This time, he grabbed her without any kind of hesitation and lifted her up on the faucet, pushing himself against her. He became hard again within seconds and Six moaned silently at the feeling of his hard manhood throbbing against her sex. She tightened her legs around his hips and stroked his neck with her fingers, before reaching down, fidgeting with his belt-buckle and finally unbuckling it, unfastening the fly of his dress-pants. Her hand quickly found his hard cock in his pants and she stroked her fingers along it, causing Picus to bite down on her lower lip, groaning and buckling towards her. His hands stroked her hips and down over her thighs, pulling the skirt of her dress back further, as Six pulled his cock out of his underwear.  
Picus reached in under her skirt and moved her panties to the side, stroking her already dripping slit before he pushed his cock inside her. Six moaned a bit too loud and Picus caught her lips once again, pushing erratically in and out of her, completely taken in with desire – as Six held his shoulder and neck in a hard grip, steadying herself against him.  
“Shit”, Picus hissed as he fucked her, grabbing her waist tighter and pushing faster inside her.  
“Don’t come inside me”, Six breathed between the moans.  
“I wont”, Picus answered before diving down to her lips again. 

Just before he came, he drew back and his seed landed on the floor below them and for a while, he just stood there, with one hand around his still erect cock and the other still around Six’s waist, steadying himself. Then he looked up at her and she looked back.  
“This is fucking fucked up”, he breathed as he put himself back into his dress-pants and pulled the zipper up, straitening out his jacket.  
“I don’t care”, Six looked at him, from where she sat, still on the faucet.  
“Me neither”, Picus answered and stroked her jawline and then leaned in to kiss her. “We need to get back, else they might think we left”  
“Wouldn’t want that, right?” Six smiled a little nervously and Picus snorted a bit smugly.

***

It was wrong, Six knew that it was and Picus had to know as well. If Vulpes were to find out about this, neither of them would survive it. You just didn’t screw your praefectus’ wife without consequence. Neither did the wife sleep with one of her husbands men without being strung up on a cross. Perhaps Aurelius would get his wish sooner than he thought.  
 _But that’s not fair, is it_? Six thought to herself as she sat beside Picus at the large table, once again. _Vulpes gets to fuck whomever he wishes, so what gives him the right_? It just didn’t seem very fair to Six that she couldn’t just give in to her own wants and needs. She had gone back to Vulpes because of her son, now she had two sons with him – and she would return to Vulpes every time if it meant she got to be with her children, but neither of them was here. Picus, was the one who was here and the desire she had felt just a few moments ago in the bathroom – she’d never felt that before, at least not from what she could remember.  
Vulpes wasn’t a passionate person, unless it was about violence, then he could be plenty passionate. But when it came to lovemaking or sex – he enjoyed it, without question – but it was all very well thought out and he seldom showed any feelings that didn’t seem meticulously thought through.

“So, Miss. Zeigel”, a middle aged officer that sat straight across from Six said, “How did you and captain Curtis meet?”  
“Oh”, Six smiled and took Picus' hand, which she noticed made Nancy Oliver flinch from where she sat two chairs away from the officer who’d just asked Six a question. “We just happened to run into each other the day I arrived here. I must say, he was the most welcoming soldier I’ve ever had the chance to run into, escorting me to where I could stay for the night and at the same time showing me some important sights – and then he asked me out, and how could I say no to such a handsome man?”, Six smirked towards Picus who winked back at her.  
“So this is more or less the first time you visit Shady Sands, is it?” the officer arched a brow.  
“Yes, I’ve spent most of my time in New Reno and before that New Vegas”, Six answered.  
“And to think it was here the two of you ran into each other. You were stationed at Camp McCarran for several years, weren’t you Curtis?”  
“I was”, Picus nodded. “Though, as I’ve understood it, Ivy spent her time in Vegas on the Strip – I seldom left McCarran”  
“What did you do in Vegas, if I may ask?” the officer was probably just making small talk, but Six couldn’t help notice how the conversation seemed to unnerve Nancy, or it was probably the way Picus and herself touched each other that was the reason the first lady was casting glances that became less and less discrete.  
“Well, I spent most of my time in a casino”, Six lied – she really had no idea, she only knew she had apparently been married to the mobster-bastard who shot her.  
“You were working in the casino, or gambling?” he laughed and Picus leaned back in his chair and threw his arm around the back of Six’s chair.  
“I was married to the owner of one of the casinos on the Strip”, Six gave a stale smile – _argh_ , she needed to learn how to relax into the fact that Benny was a dick, but he was no more and if she could use that useless profligate marriage for anything, then why not?  
"Get out off here!” the officer grinned and looked at Picus, who just gave him a smug smile, “Do you hear that Debbie," he said to the woman sitting next to him, "Married to one of the former owners of a Vegas casino. Then he must have been one of those mobsters, right? Which family was it, the Omertas?”  
“Chairmen”, Six took a sip of her sweet wine, “Benny Zeigel”  
“You’re kidding?” the officer looked almost flabbergasted, “You know, I met him once. Real smooth fella, wasn’t he? A real ladies man”  
Picus gave the man a stern look, warning him not to push it too far, but Six simply laughed, “Well, I divorced him, didn’t I?” and then she winked. Two bullets in the skull certainly could count as a divorce, at least in Six’s book. 

_Poor, poor Benny_. His end hadn’t been very pretty, had it? Vulpes certainly saw to that. One of the many reasons she loved that psychotic son of a bitch, he really knew how to lash someone to a cross.  
Six was gathering up quite the collection of powerful men, as she not so much tore through the west, as she tipped around in her newfound love; peep-toed heels.

***


	6. Right Behind You, Baby

A week was all it took, a week, for her to screw up. But had it really been inevitable? Of course it would have, people aren’t completely governed by their sexes, even though you can’t help feeling attraction, or passion for that matter – normal human beings can control themselves. Control their urges. This was completely pathetic, utterly stupid and…and, _fuck, that was good_.  
Picus stood on his knees before her in all his bronze skinned glory with her pale white legs resting on his shoulders, as he kissed her feet and pounded into her. Six laid spread out before him, her hair curling around her shoulders and the beads of sweat trailing down between her breasts glistening in the morning sun shining in from the large windows. Picus' hair was tousled from sleep and his eyes looked lazily down on Six as she moaned under his steady grip around her fleshy thighs.  
“Picus…” she moaned.  
“Mm?” he breathed while making a throaty sound, dragging his nose against one of her shins.  
“I wanna feel your weight over me”, Six said and reached for him to lay down over her.  
Picus smiled lazily and spread her legs so he could fall down between them. He was so large, this man. So tall, broad and just very…tribal. And he was large _everywhere_ , almost a bit too large, if she was to be honest. But he was careful with her, giving her a gentle sort of attention Vulpes hardly ever did. He touched her body with such lightness of his hands, but still with an experienced determination, like he knew exactly what he was doing. It wasn’t better or worse than when she slept with Vulpes, generally – it was just, different.  
“Just like that”, Six breathed, “and harder, grinding”  
“Hm? Yeah, sure love”, Picus obeyed and pushed harder against her, grinding himself in a small but circular manner, shallowly kissing her, balling his fists in her hair. Six guided his hips against her and she moaned as she could feel her orgasm build up inside her.  
“Just a little bit more…just a little, baby”, she moaned and grinded back against him.  
“Oh fuck, I love it when you do that”, Picus groaned against her neck and Six’s body responded in droves – tensing up and then relaxing as if she was turning into a pool of soft wetness and if it weren’t for Picus’ body keeping her there in the moment, she could have sworn she had just melted through the crust of the earth itself.  
Picus increased his movements and soon pulled out of Six and came over her stomach as he moaned helplessly into the thick, damp hair in her neck. 

She was a harlot.  
Probably the worst kind, but somehow it felt worth it. She decided to ignore her mind telling her it probably wouldn’t feel as worth it once she hanged there, strung up on a cross – but Six pushed the thought away and stroked the longer hair on top of Picus' head and kissed the soft spot just behind his ear.  
“Picus?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I never asked…how old are you?”  
Picus laughed a little breathy. “Why?”  
“Just came to think about it”  
“I’m 23”  
“Really?”  
“Mm, why? Does it surprise you?” Picus asked as he rose from over her and sat on the edge of the bed, wiping some sweat from his forehead.  
“Well, no. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t”, Six mused to herself, “How old is Nancy?”  
“Nance? I dunno, 40-something, I guess”, Picus shrugged.  
“You all right with fucking her?”  
“Yeah, she’s an attractive woman”, Picus turned and looked at Six, “Well, not like you. Gods, those tits of yours, they wont stay that swollen forever, will they?”  
“Certainly hope not”, Six smirked, “They fucking hurt, you know”  
“I don’t care, they’re gorgeous. Best tits I’ve ever seen”, Picus took one of her breasts into his large hand and stroked it. A small drop of milk leaked out from it and Six blushed, wiping it away as quick as possible.  
“Sorry”, she said and sat up.  
“Why? You don’t have to be ashamed. You’re a mother, it’s natural”  
“You don’t think it’s…disgusting?”  
“The hell, Aurelia? Why would I?”  
Six shook her head, “I don’t know”, she sighed.  
“You’re fucking gorgeous, even though you’ve got leaky tits”, he grinned and stroked her cheek, leaning in and kissing her. “I’ll take a shower, I’ve got a meeting at noon I gotta attend”  
“All right”, Six nodded and watched her perfectly muscled, tall and broadly built Hispanic lover rise from the bed and walk naked into the tiny bathroom.

***

Picus got dressed in his usual uniform after he’d taken a shower and before he left, he kissed the blushing woman lying in his bed, reveling in her after glow. She was possibly the most beautiful women he’d ever seen, even more so considering she was far from perfect. On her lower abdomen, she had stretchmarks from when she was pregnant and her stomach wasn’t as tight as it probably once were – but it didn’t matter. Really, he liked Nancy for the same reasons – they were gorgeous women, both of them, but the beauty became so much more apparent with the sight of their imperfections. But Aurelia, gods above, what was that woman made of? She was possibly as addictive as med-x, if not worse. The fact that she was married to Vulpes just made it all the more forbidden and…well, quite frankly it just made it that much better. Now, he needed to handle Nancy. He saw her looks the night at the officer’s dinner and he had been able to dodge her yesterday, but he knew it was only a matter of time until she ‘accidentally’ ran into him in the mess hall or among the recruits. She never just waltzed in to his office, but it wouldn’t surprise him if she did, were she angry enough.

The heat outside was unbearable and even more so in his already warm fucking uniform and as soon as he stepped out from the air-condition inside the apartment complex, he swore as he immediately could feel the sweat starting to run down his back inside the thick uniform-jacket.  
While he walked the short walk down to his office to prepare for the meeting he was having with the commanders and the other captains at noon, he wasn’t at all surprised to see Nancy more or less skulking close to the office building. _Goddamn it_.  
“Good morning, Mrs. Oliver”, Picus smiled and greeted the first lady.  
“Captain Curtis”, she said in a obviously strained fake-neutral voice. “I was hoping I would run into you, thank you for coming the other night, by the way”  
“Thank you for hosting us, Mrs. Oliver”, Picus smiled, “Did you want to have a word with me?”  
“Yes!” she said a tone too high, “I would, yes”, she fidgeted with her hands and Picus smiled, gesticulating for her to enter the building before him.  
“Of course, after you Mrs. Oliver”, Picus said with his usual charming smile while cursing under his breath and following Nancy inside. 

They walked beside each other through the corridors until the reached the end of the third hall where his small office was located. He opened the door and waited for Nancy to enter and then walked inside, closing the door behind him.  
At first, she kept fidgeting with her hands, seemingly refusing to look at him.  
“Nance-“, he started saying, but was quickly interrupted.  
“What the hell are you playing at, Ron?” she hissed, looking up at him. Her otherwise soft lightly auburn eyes looked hurt and angry, which he could understand, he supposed. But dear gods, she was the one who was married. She couldn’t possibly claim to be the only one who has a right to him.  
“What I’m playing at? You mean Ivy?” he said and leaned against the wall. “It’s just some fun, Nance, don’t worry”  
“Some fun? It’s humiliating!” her voice was beginning to become higher, in tune with her anger.  
“Hush”, Picus gesticulated with his hands for her to quiet down somewhat. “How’s it humiliating? You’re married”  
“To a half-dead mummy!” she retorted, “Or I might as well be”, she said, pouting and nervously stroking back a strand of her ashen white blonde hair behind her ear.  
Picus walked up to her, grabbing her upper arms, “The guys were starting to suspect something, as to why I never meet someone. And you sneaking around here time and time again don’t exactly help. I needed to do something to get the suspicions off my back”  
“So, it’s nothing serious?” she looked up at him, doe-eyed and perhaps a little reassured.  
“Nah”, Picus shrugged, “She’s a great gal, but you know I’m yours”  
“I don’t like the thought of you being with her”, Nancy frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why’d you have to chose someone so…pretty? And young, for that matter? I mean, gosh, she’s the wife of a dead mobster! She could be dangerous, couldn’t she?”  
_You have no idea_. “Her connections to the Chairmen are long since broken, as far as I know. They must have fled New Vegas, if they even survived the Legion’s annexation”  
“You didn’t answer my question, Ron”  
“What? That she’s young? She’s my age”  
“And I’m not. And she’s so pretty”, _she’s acting like a spoiled insecure child, so very unattractive and utterly infuriating_ , Picus thought to himself, but he kept his cool and stroked her cheek, looking into her eyes.  
“I don’t care about your age, you know I don’t Nance. And so what if she’s pretty? So are you. I mean, you’re quite a bit older than her, but still so much more gorgeous”  
“You really mean that, Ron?” Nancy looked at him, leaning in to his touch.  
“You bet I do”, Picus said, _time to rile her in_ , and leaned in to kiss her and she answered like a starved slave being thrown a piece of stale bread. 

Well, that was more trouble than he needed right now, but if he was to say so himself, he thought that he had solved it in a pretty smooth way. Nancy was off his back – at least for now. Now he simply needed to get some work done before this goddamn meeting at noon.

***

There was a knock on the apartment door and Six, who had had a long, somewhat cold, shower and gotten dressed, sitting out on what she had found out was called a ‘balcony’, rose to go get the door. Outside the door stood an NCR recruit who told her he was a messenger, delivering a letter for a ‘Miss Ivy Zeigel’. Six took the letter and thanked the messenger she now highly suspected was a frumentarius, since few but Picus inside the NCR knew she actually lived with him.  
Indeed that young man must have been a spy, seeing who the sender of the letter was.

A,   
Hopefully everything is well. I wanted to let you know that all is well with F, as well as with A. I got word from the capital and he’s starting his language studies next month.  
The messenger who delivered this message is someone you can turn to if you want to send word to me regarding your stay in Shady Sands, if there’s anything you need. I’ve sent some extra currency with the letter, in case you got all too caught up in buying those dresses of yours.  
Be careful with yourself, I wish to have a whole wife brought back to me once you’re finished with the task at hand.  
V.I 

_Buying those dresses of mine_? Sneaky bastard. Hopefully it was Picus who had reported back to him about going with her to shop for clothing. She’d have to remember to ask him later. That reminded her, she needed to start snooping out where she could find Arcade Gannon. Picus only had some suspicions about where he could actually be, and it was out of his hands to dig too deep into it, as it could seem suspicious of him to ask around about a doctor with Enclave ties.  
Six tucked the letter down her pack, containing the few things she had brought with her from Vegas and then counted the money Vulpes had sent her. Gods, he was completely mad – he had sent her 20 000 dollars. Did they have a counterfeit machine or something, spouting out NCR-currency around the clock? Probably. It wouldn’t surprise her.  
She grabbed her handbag and tucked down around a thousand dollars and went out for a stroll around the different districts. She could go shopping for some jewelry, which was the one thing she didn’t have in her possession. At least not profligate pre-war jewelry, she had loads of the kind of jewelry women under Caesar wore, but she couldn’t wear those here. They were of a completely different style from the pre-war pears, stones and plastic the women here wore. 

As she walked towards the shopping district, or the commercial district as it was also called, she couldn’t believe her luck when she happened to spot no one other than Boone. The Legion had suspected them to have fled to Shady Sands, if they survived the battle and the annexation – but neither of Vulpes’ spies had located them entirely, it was only Gannon that Picus had been able to confirm to actually reside in Shady Sands. But this, this was perfect. She only needed to play her cards right and Boone would probably lead her straight to Arcade.  
“Boone!” she called and he immediately turned towards her, frowning behind his dark shades. He almost dropped his jaw at the sight of her and she quickly walked over to him. He looked like he’d seen a ghost, not unlike Benny when he’d seen her at the Tops.  
“Six?” he hissed, “What the hell? You’re alive?”  
“Yes, yes I am”, Six stood close to Boone, pretending to look around her a little paranoid-like. “I’m sorry I bolted, I’m so, so sorry, but I was so scared Boone”  
“We tried to fucking save you, Six”, he retorted in a low voice. “The fuck are you doing here?”  
“I ran, escaped and eventually ended up here. This is the only place I’m somewhat safe from _him_ ”  
“But you were pregnant, you left your baby?”  
Six pretended to fidget with her hands, looking around her and then she looked back up at him with distraught eyes. “It died”, she said.  
“Died? How?” Boone crossed his arms over his chest.  
“In my belly, it died. I birthed a dead child, Boone”, it wasn’t a complete lie, but it still made her feel a bit bad lying about such a thing. She had birthed a dead child before, Aella, she just couldn’t remember it.  
“I…”, he hesitated, “I’m sorry Six”, he sighed.  
“I thought that he would come after me, never leave me alone if I managed to escape with his baby still inside me. I was so stupid Boone, so foolish”, Six shook her head. “I’m so sorry for what I did”  
“Don’t, Six”, Boone shook his head. “It’s, it’s good to see you, to see that you live. I don’t even…like, know what to say about what you’ve been through”  
“It’s all right, you tried to help me, but I fucked it up”, Six looked up at the large sniper. “It was nice seeing you, anyway”, she smiled a bitter-sweet smile.  
“Hey, wait”, Boone reached out to her, “Wanna grab a beer or something? You can’t just walk away like that”  
“Now? It’s still morning”, Six couldn’t help but to genuinely smirk at that. “Yeah, why not, huh?”  
Boone nodded and they started to walk towards one of the more shady looking bars, serving alcohol at all hours. 

“Where are Cass and Ronnie?” Six asked when they had sat down at a corner-table deep inside the shady bar.  
“They’re down in Sac-Town doing fuck knows what, Cass had some caravan business there”, Boone said and took a few draughts of his beer.  
“Huh”, Six nodded.  
“Where are you staying? How do you support yourself here? You look like you're kinda well off”, he eyed her fishbone skirt and white blouse.  
“I met a captain in the NCR, I’m staying with him for now”, Six began to scrape the label of her beer with her fingernails.  
“A captain, huh?”  
“Mm”, Six hummed, “Oh, and perhaps it’s best I tell you straight away. I decided my name’s Ivy Zeigel”  
“Zeigel?” Boone scoffed, “Where’d you get that from?”  
“Apparently, the guy in the chequered jacket – Benny – I was married to him before he shot me”  
“You’re fucking kidding me, right?”  
“Afraid not”, Six twisted her lips in distaste. “Found that out just before Inculta abducted me”  
“Talk about having some damned bad luck with the men you run into. I hope with captain’s better”, it looked like Boone rolled his eyes behind the shades.  
“He is…” Six smiled slightly to herself, and she meant it. “Ronald’s a good man”  
“His name’s Ronald? Not Curtis?”  
“Yeah, why? You know him?”  
“Nah, just ran into him back in Vegas a few times. He was stationed at McCarran”  
“Yeah, he told me”, Six nodded.  
“Seemed like a good enough fellow”, Boone grunted. “You know that Followers-doctor that stitched you up that one time?”  
“Um…the one who spoke Latin?” Six asked. _Jackpot_.  
“Yeah”, Boone took another swig from his bottle.  
“What about him?”  
“He’s here too”  
“Huh”, Six shrugged, “Does the Legion have anyone left within their lands?”  
“Hopefully not”, Boone chuckled a little bitterly. “I’m meeting him tonight, maybe you’d want to join us?”  
“Yeah, why not?” Six nodded slowly, looking at Boone.  
“You can bring your captain if you’d like, could be nice having another soldier to talk to, considering how the doc is”  
“Why? How is he?”  
“He babbles”, Boone grunted and swallowed the last of his beer and Six laughed softly.  
“Well then, I suppose I should get on with my shopping. You wanna come?” Six smirked towards Boone.  
“Hell no, I’ll see you tonight. Whaddya say we meet at the Seventeen bar?”  
“Sure, I think I know where that is”, Six smiled and rose from the table and then leaned in to kiss Boone on the cheek. “Thank you, Boone, truly”, she smiled softly.  
“Don’t mention it”, he answered. “I gotta go see my ma, see you tonight…Uh, Ivy”, he smirked just a tad. 

Well, that went perfectly, Six thought to herself as she continued towards the shopping district. Now she definitely needed a new dress to wear this evening. Or maybe some new shoes? Oh, _shoes_.

***


	7. The Way You Look Tonight

Six had gotten dressed in a new red dress that the woman in the store where she bought it had said would be more suited for a night out on town, instead of the cocktail dress Six had initially looked at. She looked at herself in the mirror, twisting and turning to check that everything seemed to be in place as it should. The girdle tightly held her stomach in and shaped her hips into soft and marked curves, while her waist had become almost ridiculously thin with the help of what they called a ‘waspie’. When she had first looked at the dress, she hadn’t been very impressed, but when she tried it on, she saw what the woman had described. The cringed fabric over her bust made her bosom stand out, while the loose fabric that fell from her tightly clenched hips gave her an almost dreamy figure. Vulpes was right, she _did_ love her dresses – and shoes. She had decided to use those peep-toes that she was so enamored with, since the black leather matched perfectly to the deep red of her dress. She still hadn’t found any jewelry she liked, but it didn’t matter – she thought that she looked glamorous enough without pearls or gems.  
She made sure the brand just below her neck didn’t show and left most of her hair flowing down her back, curling up a few strands of hair on the top of her head. She wasn’t going to attend some grand dinner tonight, after all. She was going to a swing-bar to meet up with a deviant and a grumpy sniper. 

Picus hadn’t been home since this morning and she still felt like she needed to make sure he was okay with her going out. Even though he’d never said anything about her leaving the apartment before, he was responsible for keeping an eye on her and the last thing she wanted, was to piss the handsome captain off. Where could he be though? Six decided it was possibly best to go down to the base where he worked to see if he was there and if he wasn’t, maybe she could find someone to pass on a message for him. Just to be sure, she left him a note on the bed, telling of where she had gone and why. She couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to make friends with Arcade, simply because Picus had irregular hours. 

The evening darkness had fallen over Shady Sands and the city had been transported from dull brown and grey into a plethora of blinking lights and even in the military districts she could hear the soft echoes of jazz, swing, rock and do-wop music bounce between the buildings.  
The military districts held one smaller bar for the soldiers, but Six had just walked past it and never been inside. She still wasn’t completely comfortable with the wandering eyes of new recruits eyeing her and while there were wandering eyes in the culture districts, they weren’t only focused on her and that provided some relief at least. 

The large office building in which Picus had his office was partly covered in darkness, seeing as most of the officer’s had left work a couple of hours ago, but Six entered the building, hoping she would find someone she could ask as to where she could find Picus.  
The reception area was empty and the lights were turned off, but she noticed a guard pacing around – of course they would have guards in every military building all around the clock. _Good_ , Six thought.  
“Excuse me, sir”, Six walked up to the guard and he turned around and looked at her with what she could only interpret as uninterest.  
“Yes, mam?” he answered.  
“I’m looking for captain Ronald Curtis, you wouldn’t happen to know where I could find him?”  
“This ain’t office hours, mam”, the guard grunted.  
“I realize that, I would however need to speak with the captain and I was told I would be able to find him here”, Six battered her lashes in an attempt to sway the guard somewhat. It didn’t seem to work, but he sighed and pointed down the corridor ahead of him.  
“I haven’t seen him, but his office is down that corridor. Take a left when you’ve reached the end of this hall and then follow that hall to the end and then take a right. His office is at the end of the last corridor”  
“Thank you kindly, sir”, Six smiled.  
“Don’t be too long now”, he muttered and went back to pacing around. 

Six did as the guard had told her and followed the corridors – the building was somewhat of a maze of wooden panels and oak doors to the left and right. It was incredible to think that all of these buildings were built after the war, considering the state of them. The only real and proper buildings she had seen as far as she could remember, had been pre-war. But she had been told that both Flagstaff and Phoenix had the same kind of large and impressive buildings that were erected after the war.  
Six looked at the different brass plates that told of who’s office was who’s and eventually she arrived before the closed oak door with a plate that said ‘Capt. Ronald Curtis’ and she knocked on the door.

***

Picus sat in the chair behind his desk with his head leaned back and eyes closed. He tried to focus his thoughts on Aurelia, the way she had looked this morning before he left – all blissful and milky white before him, with the blushing crimson spreading over her chest as he took her, claimed her as his own. The way she moaned from under him, told him just what do to make her come and then, the way her body clenched around him as she reached her climax. It had brought him over the edge and left his body flaccid and it was almost as if he saw stars. Her embarrassment over her breasts leaking had only made her more human to him and he liked it, really _liked_ it. The stretchmarks, scars and imperfections that she let him gaze upon as she laid naked before him, was just what he needed to even dare to actually touch her if she didn’t more or less initiate it first. She looked like pure and raw desire when dressed, all dolled up – and she reminded him of a pre-war pin-up goddess from one of those magazines that circulated around the recruits, _Cat’s Paw_. But there was something more to her that just got to him, something about her that ticked something within him, that he hadn’t expected at all. Something that made him want to keep her all to himself, to just take care of her, keep her with him and beat up any guy that even let his eyes wander at the sight of her.

Nancy’s head bobbed up and down between his legs as she sat on her knees before him, but he was too distracted, too caught up with Aurelia. But it wouldn’t do, Nancy would notice and so he tried to keep himself erect and the easiest way for him to do just that, was by picturing Aurelia’s soft, perky lips around his manhood – _her_ saliva lubricating his cock as _her_ lips stroked him up and down, _her_ tongue flickering over the sensitive string just under the head of his cock. The thought made him flinch and Nancy sniggered around him as she kept working him with her thin lips and hands. It had to work, he had to come – if he couldn’t even pretend with Nancy, he was _fucked_. 

And then there was a knock on his door. _Damn it_ , he hissed, opening his eyes and looking down at the blond woman between his legs. She released his cock with a ‘pop’ of her lips, raising a brow.  
“Who’d want to see you at this hour?” she whispered.  
Picus shrugged, looking over at the door.  
“Leave it”, she whispered and started to jerk him off, but the magic had lost its touch as Picus had been drawn out from his fantasies about the morning he spent with Aurelia.  
“Could be important”, me murmured, “I’ll just check it out. Stay here”, he said and tucked his softening dick down into his pants and zipped up.  
Nancy let out a frustrating groan and sat back, pouting, looking indignant. 

Picus walked over to the door, unlocking it and when he opened it, he was surprised to she Aurelia standing outside, dressed up to her teeth.  
“You busy?” she smirked with her crimson painted plump lips. The swelling in Picus’ pants found a revival as his eyes were caught by her lips.  
“Just finishing some work”, he cleared his throat, “Whaddya doing here Ivy?”  
He stepped out of his office and closed the door behind him. It would look suspicious to Nancy, as it would be obvious to Aurelia that he was hiding something, but right then he didn’t care. In case Aurelia didn’t pick up on him calling her Ivy, she might slip and refer to him by his real name.  
She looked at him with hesitant eyes and whispered, “ _She_ in there?”  
Picus nodded.  
“I see”, she said quietly. “Well, I just wanted to let you know I’m going out this evening”  
“Where?” Picus asked her, narrowing his eyes. “And with?”  
“The Seventeen, with Boone”  
“Boone?” Picus felt a punch of jealousy hit him straight in the gut.  
“Yeah, the sniper I met when I’d just woken up from being shot. He knows Gannon. He asked me out for a drink tonight and said he would bring the doc”  
“Did the two of you…?” _How undignified, Picus_ , he thought to himself.  
“Oh”, Aurelia looked up at him with a smile on her lips, “No, no, not at all. I told him about you, that I was staying with you. That’s also why I’m here, you’re invited, if you want to. But I guess…”  
“I’m a bit preoccupied”, Picus said under his breath. “I can probably meet you there, later”  
“I’d like that”, she smiled and touched his hand and Picus drew her into an embrace, taking a deep breath into her hair. She smelled like desert flowers and milk – possibly the sweetest combination he could come to think of.  
“I’m sorry about this”, he whispered into her ear.  
“Don’t be, I’m not bothered by it”, she whispered back and stroked his neck. He kissed the line of her jaw before pulling back and reaching to open the door.  
“I’ll see you later, hm?”  
“Sure”, Aurelia smiled and nodded, holding her handbag in a tight grip. What a sight she was, Picus thought as he gave her one more look, before opening the door and entering his office again, finding Nancy sitting in his chair, watching him expectantly while smoking a cigarette.  
“Problem?” Nancy asked him while rolling the smoke between her fingers.  
“No”, Picus sighed and then forced himself to smile as he looked up at Nancy, “No problem at all, babe”

***

Six walked into the smoke-filled bar, people stood and sat everywhere, some couples were slow-dancing to the soft voices of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, or dancing fast and almost in a vulgar way to Benny Goodman. Six had never seen anything like it, but as her eyes had started to draw back into her eye-sockets again, from the sight of flying skirts and dresses, shamelessly revealing garters and panties – she took some time to look around the establishment and soon saw the still shaded face of Boone, leaned against the bar. Six smiled and took aim for him, but before she could even reach the bar, a stranger stepped in front of her.  
“Why, aren’t you a fine looking dame”, the stranger mused as he eyed her from top to bottom, smirking with a sleazy look on his face.  
Six looked at him and then turned away, determined to reach Boone in the crowd.  
“Hey, lady – I was talking to ya”, the sleaze said and grabbed her arm.  
“Excuse me!”, Six tugged her arm loose from his grip, but then he just grabbed her with his other arm.  
“Why so hostile? A fine dame like yourself’’s got to be used to getting some attention”, he smirked and pressed himself close to her.  
“Could you please stop touching me, I’m here with someone”, Six hissed.  
“Yeah? Then where’s he? Looks to me like you’re all on yer lonesome, sweetheart”, he said, stroking his fingers over the bare skin of her arm.  
“Well, I’m not, so could you _please_ let go of me”, Six now snarled, giving the man a harsh stare.  
“Ain’t you a feisty one”, he chuckled and let go off her arm, backing away. “I’d ‘a enjoy you, lady. Promise I’d make you feel good”  
“Dream on”, Six hissed and then pushed herself towards Boone and quickly snaked her arm in and around his larger arm. Boone flinched at her touch and turned to look at her and then nodded.  
“You came, I was starting to wonder. Whaddya want?”  
“Sorry, seems I’m somewhat of a time optimist”, Six smiled, “A beer will be fine, thank you”  
“Didn’t bring your fella?” Boone looked around behind her.  
“He was slightly preoccupied by, er…work”, Six leaned in against Boone as a girl pushed her way onto the bar behind Six. “Has the doc arrived?”  
“Yeah, he’s got a table down over there”, Boone pointed through the dancing people at a section of small tables. “Why don’t you go sit yourself down and I’ll bring the drinks, yeah?”  
“Thank you, Boone”, Six smiled.

She remembered Arcade from when he stitched her up, he had a quite distinct look about him, with his yellowish blonde hair and thick black brimmed glasses. And he was tall, which made him stand out even further. She saw him sitting at a small table and walked over to him and when he saw her, he stood up and greeted her.  
“Ivy Zeigel, or so I’ve been told”, he gave her a toothy smile and pulled out a chair for her, “I must say, you look much better now than last I saw you”  
“Well, thank you Mr. Gannon”, Six smiled and looked at the doc through her black, long lashes.  
“Just Arcade’s fine, dear”, he winked.  
“Then ‘just Arcade’ it is”, Six said, “And I’m ‘just Ivy’”  
Arcade laughed at that and sat back in his chair. When Boone arrived at the table with their drinks, Six and Arcade had already been chatting away for quite some time. Talking was surprisingly easy with the doc, especially since he already had a couple of drinks behind his vest. 

Boone, as Six knew him, weren’t one for dressing up, but it seems he had tried to at least make some kind of effort this evening, wearing a pair of black slacks instead of his normal cargo pants, but he still only wore a t-shirt with curled up sleeves and he mostly kept quiet, chain-smoking as Arcade chatted away. Arcade, however, was dressed in a dashing manner – matching Six’s level of dress up, in a pinstriped skinny suit with a fedora that he’d taken off his head and put on the table before them. The one standing out in the crowd in here, was Boone – everyone else looked like glamour re-born and girls swung around in dresses with gems and pearls sewn into the fabric, their large earrings swaying with every step they took.  
“You know how to swing?” Arcade asked her.  
“You mean how to dance the fast dances?” Six asked.  
“Yeah, I guess that’s a no?” he grinned.  
“It is”, Six smiled a little embarrassed. She never had a reason to know how to dance, and if she used to know how to dance before – she didn’t anymore.  
“You wanna try a slower one?” Arcade asked her.  
“Sure, why not?” Six smiled and let Arcade grab her hand to the tunes of Cole Porter’s ‘Anything Goes’. 

The dancing was rather easy, as Arcade led her, she simply followed his secure and familiar steps. Once in a while, he swirled her around her own shoulder, which made her laugh, and then he would grab her waist again and lead her on, swaying back and forth, to the left and right. It was a good thing she wore her high heels, as he was so tall. He must have been at least 6,3, in comparison to her 5,5, but the extra inches of her peep’s made the dancing a bit easier, height-wise – not balance-wise, however. But at least she was able to keep herself on her feet, much with the help of Arcade keeping a steady grip around her waist.  
They danced their way through two more songs and Six couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed as much as she had right then. It was just such a nice thing to do, perhaps she had done this with Benny? They much have had some fun times together, seeing as she married him – from what she could remember from him, how he walked, how his body moved and how he spoke, he seemed like a man who knew how to have a good time. It was a shame, really, about Benny. Such a waste, and it was just down to his own stupidity, trying to fuck over his own wife. 

When the tunes of Dean Martin’s “Mambo Italiano” started playing, Six felt the steps were becoming too complicated, so she thanked Arcade for the dances and then they went to sit down with Boone again, just watching the more experienced dancers sway their hips in a dance Six thought looked almost like love-struck birds trying to impress each other.  
The hours flew by and before Six had noticed it herself, the room around her had become dizzy and she had trouble focusing her eyes on one thing alone. Damn it, she was drunk. She hadn’t kept an eye on how much or what it was exactly, that she had been drinking. She had been too busy having fun, dancing, talking and laughing with mostly Arcade. Boone was just as quiet as she had remembered him, keeping to drinking his beers and grunting every once in a while. 

When she felt a tap on her shoulder, she lazily turned around, preparing for it being another soldier-boy wanting a dance with her, but instead it was Picus that finally had turned up. Six didn’t know what got into her, but as she saw him smile towards her when she turned around, she squealed happily and jumped up and threw her arms around his neck.  
“Baby!”, she cooed as his arms circled around her waist, “I was hoping you’d show up eventually”  
“Of course I would, Ivy”, Picus embraced her, lifting her off the floor for a moment, kissing her neck and smelling her hair. When he’d put her down again, Six sat down and scooted over so he could sit down beside her.  
“This is Arcade and Boone”, Six said and nodded to her two friends, “And this is my dashing captain, Ronald”, she smiled as Picus reached over the table to shake first Arcade’s hand and then Boone’s.  
“Haven’t we met before?” Picus asked Boone. “McCarran, if I’m not mistaken?”  
“She tell you that?” Boone nodded towards Six.  
“I did no such thing!” Six pouted for a second and then smiled, cozying up against Picus.  
“No, she didn’t”, Picus smiled, “First recon, right?”  
“Yep”, Boone nodded.  
“Arcade here’s a doctor”, Six smiled and nodded towards Arcade.  
“More of a researcher”, Arcade gave Picus a flirtatious smile as he sipped his drink. Picus nodded in understanding. “And you’re an officer of the NCR. How long have you been in the army?”  
“Little more than four years”, Picus nodded, stroking Six’s hip. He had been home and changed out of his uniform, now he was wearing a simple grey slim-fitted suit with a black tie. He looked amazing, his strong tall body coming perfectly to its right in the clean lines of his suit. “I’ll just head over to the bar, any of you need something more?”  
Arcade and Six shook their heads, but Boone asked for another beer and Picus nodded.  
“That’s one handsome man you’ve gotten for yourself”, Arcade said, looking dreamily after Picus. _Well, you’re welcome to join the Legion willingly, there’s no shortage of pleasant looking men where we come from_ , Six thought.  
“Mhm”, Six sniggered.  
“Lucky girl”, Arcade sighed sipped his drink. 

Before it was time to leave the Seventeen for the night, Six was asked to dance by Picus and in her blissful but drunken state, she just flew with him in a slow pace to Bobby Darin’s ‘Dream Lover’, as Picus mouthed the lyrics close to her lips as they danced. The butterflies was no longer just in her stomach, they were _everywhere_. His warm hand resting on the small of her back and his other hand, softly holding hers as he slowly moved her around the now emptying dance floor. His full lips moving, his deeply hazel eyes watching her intently and his strong arms around her – right there and then, she couldn’t imagine something better than this. It was cheesy, it was the utter cliché of profligate wooing as Six had learned, but it didn’t matter. In those two and a half minutes of the song, she was completely taken in by him. Nobody else existed besides them, it was only Picus and Aurelia. Ronald and Ivy. 

When the song ended, Picus kissed her and when their lips separated, Six couldn’t help but to let out a drunken giggle, as her lipstick had smeared out on his lips. She reached up to wipe it off of his lips and he smiled towards her.  
“Time to go home?” he murmured.  
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea. My feet are killing me”, Six said and looked down on her battered feet in the fan-fucking-tastic heels she had been wearing for too many hours now. 

They said goodbye to Arcade and Boone outside the Seventeen and then walked back to the military district. Six was a tad bit more drunk than she had planned to be, but it was all right. It was most definitely all right, because Picus was there. _He came_ , as soon as he could get rid of Nancy, he came to Six.

***

Dream lover, until then, I'll go to sleep and dream again   
That's the only thing to do, till all my lover's dreams come true   
'Cause I want - a girl - to call - my own    
I want a dream lover, so I don't have to dream alone

Please don't make me dream alone   
I beg you don't make me dream alone   
No, I don't wanna dream


	8. This Corrosion

Benny, what a lovely bastard he is, her husband, the gangster, the mobster, the boss of the Chairmen and the owner of the Tops casino on the Vegas Strip. He isn’t the most intellectual man, but it doesn’t matter – he has more than enough charm to make up for the lack of intellect. His sweet-talking is constantly on and he’s able to switch between being her soft and smooth, charming husband and being the bone-hard gangster within seconds if he ever needed. Maria’s constantly present inside his chequered jacket, the jacket that he always keeps closed with only one button – just like in the old magazines. 

Ivy’s moving around the casino, stroking her hands over the different card tables, checking in with the dealers, smiling her best smile towards the guest that arrives, the gamblers, the whores, the bored housewives. She’s all glamour, she’s the queen of this joint. 

And her king loves to pamper her, to dress her up in the most extravagant dresses and the most lavish lingerie one finds in Vegas. He loves when she dances for him to the tunes of Nina Simone – twirling around in her lingerie, crawling towards him on her knees and up in his lap, shaking her tits in his face as she pulls him close to her longing lips by his tie. She loves seeing him sit in that armchair, with the cigarette in the corner of his mouth, dressed up in one of his fancy suits, his legs spread wide and the bulge in his pants straining against the fabric as she crawls closer to him. He watches her every move with focused eyes, a small little smirk on his lips as he breathes the smoke from his cigarette in and out. His dark hair, with small specks of gray at the temples makes him look so tribal – but at the same time so sophisticated, it drives Ivy crazy within seconds as she fawns over him, grinding her body against his and moans softly as his hardness presses against her buttocks. 

He specially like it when Ivy comes into his office, while he’s going over the accounts. Benny never liked math and anything would have been a welcome distraction – but Ivy’s his current favorite. He spreads her out over the desk and takes her, wrinkling the papers, pulling down pens, paperweights and anything that’s on the desk at the time. He loves to fuck her as she wears heels, kissing her lean and curvy legs from her ankles down to her thighs, then caressing her tits as he takes her until he releases his seed inside her.

***

Six wakes up with a start, looking around herself in confusion until she notices the dull pain aching inside her head and reality starts to come back to her. It’s Picus who’s lying besides her, snoring into his pillow and it’s his arm and his leg that’s weighing her down in the bed. She looks at him for a moment, bronze skin covering hard muscle, lips slightly separated letting out soft snores and his black hair tousled against the pillow.  
The fuck had she been dreaming? It was about Benny, that much she knew - _and the dream had aroused her_. Unfair! Her body wasn’t supposed to react like that, especially not to a bastard who didn’t even remotely deserve it.  
She tried to move Picus’ leg first, slide it off her own legs and he only let out a small groan, flinching a little. When she tried to slip out of his arm however, he woke up and dragged her back down on her side against him.  
“Escaping?” he asked silently with a newly woken hoarse voice.  
“Was just gonna get some water”, Six muttered, “Think I’m…what’s it called? Hang, hung…?”  
“Hung over? Wouldn’t surprise me”, he chuckled and released her so she could get up and fetch something to drink. “Could you make some coffee, need to get to the office eventually”  
“Sure”, Six stumbled out of the bed and was instantly hit by a deep nausea and staggered forwards, having a hard time keeping her balance. “Oh… _fuck_ ”, she sighed before the world around her disappeared.

She woke up _again_ , this time on the floor with Picus crouching over her, lifting her eyelids and looking intently into her eyes and stroking her hair.  
“Wha…What happened?” Six felt a bit lighter, not as nauseous as she felt just a few minutes ago.  
“You blacked out, fainted”, Picus gave her a pitiful smile, “And…”  
“What?” she looked around her, getting up on her elbows, “Oh…”  
She had emptied her stomach on the floor beside her, and if that wasn’t humiliating enough, on herself.  
“I’m sorry”, she groaned.  
“Don’t be, you’re burning up. Obviously not _just_ hung over – you have a fever. Let me help you into the shower, all right?” Picus rose to his full height and grabbed her arms, “Think you can stand?”  
“I don’t know”  
“Well give it a try, hm?” he grabbed her around her waist and led her into the bathroom, setting her down on the floor in the shower. “Rise yourself off a bit, I’ll just clean up and I’ll be right in”  
“You don’t have to”, Six tried to protest.  
“Kinda do, though”, he smiled, “I’ll take care of it babe, you stay there” 

Picus grabbed a used towel and walked out of the small bathroom, leaving Six to herself for a moment. She felt completely humiliated as she sat there in the shower, letting the humid water rain down over her – but it felt good, like her body soaked up every last drop that landed on her. She hadn’t felt this dehydrated in a long time. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a fever. Someone had told her you could get colds from the air-condition, she didn’t remember when or where, but it felt like someone had told her that at some point. Like, if you weren’t used to air-cons, your body could react to the sudden coolness by becoming ill.  
Picus returned into the bathroom and stepped into the shower with her, washing himself of quickly whilst she sat on the floor and watched him. She could watch him for the rest of her life, for all she cared. He was majestic.  
The way his lean muscles moved as he scrubbed himself, the dark hair in his armpits, the string of dark hair beginning at his navel and then trailing down to his crotch, floating out in his curling pubic hair. He had hair in just the right places and as his large hands moved over his body, through his hair – she just couldn’t stop watching him. He looked so unconsciously concentrated when his eyes were closed and he rinsed the soap out of his hair.  
When he was done, he packed her into a towel and dried her hair as best he could, before leading her out to the bed again.  
“I’ll need to get down to the base, but you’ll stay in bed for the rest of the day, you hear?” Picus said and looked at her with narrowed eyes.  
Six nodded and he walked over to the kitchen and got her a bottle of purified water. “Make sure you drink at least four of these during the day, there’s also Nuka Cola in the fridge, it’s supposed to be good against nausea…or something, I don’t know. But small sips, yeah?”  
“Yeah”, Six crawled back in under the cover, suddenly freezing as if she had been shut into a fridge. 

Picus left her a few magazines by the bed and a bucket, in case she wouldn’t make it to the bathroom – again and then he left for work.

***

A man. Covered by white cloth. The only thing Six can see is his piercing, clear blue eyes peak out from between the fabric that covers him. She recognizes him, but she doesn’t know who he is, but she knows he’s important – somehow she just _know_ that she knows this man and she longs for him. The longing is not of a romantic kind, its platonic, but so strong she can’t help herself as she walks towards him, reaching out to touch him.   
She starts to peel off what she realizes are bandages covering his skin where his clothes doesn’t reach. Perhaps he is some kind of god? A god hiding his features from the lesser eyes of man, for the lesser eyes of a mere woman.

Six bows her head and he reaches out to touch her face, stroking her cheekbone, down over her cheek and tracing the line of her jaw. There is a comfort in his touch, a comfort she’s felt before but no longer knows.  
She unbuttons his white shirt and reaches in, finding the fastening of the bandages covering his facial features and she begins to unravel them. Slowly, she uncovers his face and the sheer beauty of him strikes her. Why does he hide himself?  
_You’re not worthy_ , something behind her speaks and Six turns around quickly to see who spoke, but sees no one. They’re alone in the deep darkness surrounding them, small living flames of fire lights up the darkness around them and Six continues to remove the shrouding cloth from the man before her.

When she is done, he stands before her in what she can only describe as glory. He is older, mid 50’s perhaps, but ravishing is his clean and _pure_ beauty. His dark hair is straight, kept short and his facial features are strict, stern and clean. Narrow eyes met by a straight nose that trails down to thin broad lips, all features touched by age but in a way that only serves to give more dignity and authority.

He watches her and then speaks, she can hear his voice – a deep hoarse voice that reaches into her very core, but she can’t understand the words that is coming out of his mouth. The words are familiar, but she doesn’t understand them, cannot make sense of them.  
_Malpais Legate_.

*** 

  
Six wakes up, feeling almost delirious from confusion as she gazes around the small apartment through narrowed and light sensitive eyes.  
 _Right, fever_ , she thinks to herself as she rises up on her elbows. She no longer feels sick to her stomach, but she’s thirsty, dehydrated. She looks over to her left as sees a bottle of water standing on the small table just besides the bed, but the water feels revolting and so she struggles out of bed, staggering at the first steps.  
She’s naked, she realizes, drawing her hands across her stomach and looks around the room one more time. On a chair on the other side of the small room, she sees a pile of clothes and she carefully walks over and searches the pile for something to cover herself with. She’s freezing.  
Six finds a large t-shirt, _must be Picus’_ , she thinks to herself as she brings it up to her nose to sniff it. It’s used and smells faintly of sweat and his aftershave, but it’ll do – she likes to have his smell around her – when she’s put the t-shirt on, she walks over to the small kitchen, opening the fridge. _Oh, yes_ , she sees a few bottles of Nuka Cola and grabs one before heading back to the bed.

She built up a small mountain of pillows and lays down, sinking in to the soft fabrics around her. _Covered by fabrics, cloth…_  
Who was the man in her dream? She knew him, but didn’t recognize him. There was something so familiar about him, but at the same time not. She could have sworn she felt some connection to him, but she’d never seen the man before in her life – or had she? Was it her subconscious speaking to her again? She couldn’t tell. The door to the apartment clicked open and Picus walked in, smiling as he saw her sitting in the bed, sipping a Nuka. He closed the door behind him and put his keys on the low table standing just before the couch and then walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge.  
“How are you doing?”, his voice was soft and he stroked one of her legs, lingering somewhat on her knee.  
“Just woke up a couple of minutes ago, but I don’t feel sick, at least”, Six gave a faint smile. “I’m having the strangest dreams”  
Picus leaned in towards her and pressed the back of his hand against her forehead. “It’s the fever, but it’s good you no longer feel nauseous”  
“What time is it? Why’re you home?” Six put the Nuka on the table beside her and leaned over against Picus, letting her head rest on his shoulder. He was so warm and she felt so cold, but still sweating.  
Picus stroked her tousled hair and let his hand run up and down her spine. “Just wanted to check in on you, I’m on my way to an exercise down on the range”, he kissed the top of her head. “Try to sleep as much as possible”, he smiled sweetly.  
Six nodded into his shoulder.  
“I’ll try not to be too late tonight”, he said before grabbing her shoulders lightly and pushing her back down against the pillows.  
“Do you recognize the name Malpais Legate?” Six asked Picus and suddenly he froze, looking at her and frowning.  
“Why do you ask?”  
“I think I dreamt about him, he was covered in…bandages and spoke in a language I knew, but didn’t understand”  
“You shouldn’t concern yourself with that traitor”, Picus gripped her wrist and looked intently into her eyes, “Forget about him”  
“Why?” Six asked.  
“Why? Because he should be dead. And you should know not to speak that name”, Picus stroked his thumb over the skin of her wrist.  
“I don’t understand”, Six sighed, “Who is he?”  
“Aurelia, what’s the matter with you?” Picus looked into her eyes and checked her temperature again.  
“Do I know him?”  
“I don’t know? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. He’s nobody now and we won’t speak of him again. Do you understand me?” Picus sounded annoyed and looked at her through narrowed eyes.  
Six nodded with a twist of her lips, confused about Picus’ reaction – why had he reacted so strangely and who was this Malpais Legate that she’d dreamt of?  
“I’ll see you later tonight, all right?” 

What the hell? Why wouldn’t he just tell her who this Malpais Legate is?

*** 

  
Luckily for Six, the fever was short lived and the next day she already felt better, physically. Mentally? She did not. The delirious dreams she had had about Benny, seeming to be forgotten memories – and about the legate, she had no idea what the dreams she had about the legate meant. They were almost religious in their tone, in the way they had left her mind searching for meaning. She tried to dig deep into her memory, but at usual it was useless, her memories just wouldn’t obey her – she couldn’t just order them to work again. Had she known the Malpais Legate?

If Picus had reacted as he did, would Vulpes react in a likewise manner if she decided to ask him about the bandaged man?  
What did those bandages mean?

As Six walked around the city, trying to solve what she imagined as a riddle of lost memories, a thought struck her. _He was drenched in pitch and set alight_. _He burned as he got thrown into the canyon_.  
She heard the hushed voices of recruits whispering around her, as if they were just behind her, but when she looked over her shoulder – all she saw was NCR citizens and soldiers – no legionaries or slaves. _’The Burned Man’_ , a whisper spoke and her eyes widened as she saw the answer before her. The legate, _Malpais Legate_ was the almost mythical _Burned Man_ the young recruits had nightmares about. The Malpais Legate was alive, but he had burned and his skin had been scorched – leaving him covered in protecting bandages.  
But why did she dream of him? 

A hand gripped her arm and deep in thoughts as Six had been, the sudden touch against her skin, made her jump and she quickly turned around.  
“Pater”, she gasped.  
Aurelius tugged at her arm, “Hush woman”, he said through clenched teeth and leaned in close to her ear, “It’s not very wise to speak our tongue out in the open around these parts, is it?”  
“Well, if you didn’t fucking sneak up on me, it wouldn’t be an issue”, Six retorted with a hefty amount of venom in her voice.  
“Come along now, daughter, don’t make a scene”, he started walking, holding her in a tight grip.  
“What do you want? Why are you still here? I thought you would be going back to your _camp_ ”, Six hissed and rubbed over Aurelius hand, circling her upper arm harshly as he led them in through a small back alley.  
“I went back, but I was sent right back with a message for you”  
“Must be an important message, seeing as they could have sent a simple _messenger_ \- I don’t know if amnesia is hereditary, but you do know you’re a centurion, right?”  
Aurelius rolled his eyes at her and as soon as they rounded a corner and they were completely out of sight from prying eyes, he threw her against a wall and Six yelped as she fell onto the ground. Aurelius crouched in front of her, clasping a large hand over her throat and looking at her intently with a seriousness that made her stomach churn, but then he smiled – that unnatural vile smile that just seemed wrong combined with his features.  
“Your husband sent me, you see”  
“Why?” Six rasped, trying to draw in enough air into her lungs.  
“I bring grave news, but also good ones – considering your station”  
“Well, _tell me_ ”, Six seethed.  
“The thing is, daughter”, Aurelius drawled, “You haven’t been obedient, you’ve been allowing that frumentarius to stick his dick inside you. Is that a common trait among the fruits of my loins, to fall onto every cock they come across?”  
“I don’t know”, Six smiled innocently, “Like father, like daughter, wouldn’t you say?”  
That earned her a slap across the face.  
“Don’t test my patience, I’m not your husband”, Aurelius snarled lowly and leaned in to kiss her neck. “So soft, daughter. You’re somewhat of a delicacy, aren’t you? Perhaps that is why men seem to be unable to keep their hands off of you?”  
“Pig”, Six kicked at him but he just chuckled and stroked a finger over her heaving chest, before peaking inside her blouse.  
“Yeah”, he chuckled. “Well, the situation is as follows and you best listen closely now. Caesar is dead, so is Lanius. Your husband staged a coup and has been declared the new Caesar –“  
“What?” Six gasped and looked at Aurelius with widened eyes, “How, when?”  
“Right now, that is irrelevant, however – Vulpes, ehm, Caesar, wishes for you to continue with your mission for now, but you need to speed it up a bit, yeah?”  
Six nodded.  
“As for spreading your legs for _captain Curtis_ , here you have two choices”, Aurelius continued, “Either I tell your husband the truth about what you and that frumentarius have been up to, or I keep quiet”  
“What will I have to do for you to keep quiet?”, Six snarled quietly - _it was quite obvious, wasn’t it?_  
“Give yourself to me”, Aurelius stroked her cheek and looked at her with his deeply blue eyes – the same nuance as her own, “Willingly”  
“So, either I get murdered by my husband, or have my father fuck me?” Six felt nauseated – as if her breakfast was on its way back up her throat.  
“Hush now, you make it sound so…depraved”, Aurelius looked amused.  
“That’s because it fucking _is_ ”, Six hissed.  
Aurelius shrugged, “Your choice – and, I would ask you to mind your language – however, I do like ‘em a bit feisty”, he grinned, looking down right awful.  
“You fucking asshole, you sick motherfucking pig – you disgust me!” Six snarled and tried to launch against him, but his grip around her throat stopped her.  
“Should I take that as a ‘no’, then?” Aurelius smiled.  
Six almost sobbed as she avoided Aurelius gaze, but then she narrowed her eyes and looked up at him. “You do whatever the fuck you want with my body, you sick fuck, but I will kill you, some day”  
“I’m counting on it”, Aurelius smiled and leaned in and kissed her, Six refused to answer his kiss and Aurelius drew back, looking at her. “Remember what I said, hm?”  
Six sighed and swore under her breath, “ _Willingly_ ” and Aurelius nodded. Then he kissed her again and Six moved her lips against his, feeling his tongue making its way into her mouth. Strangely, as the kiss became deeper, the nausea subsided and the taste of her horrid fathers mouth became almost acceptable. But _gods_ , she hated him. She _hated, hated, hated, hated_ him.

*** 


	9. Broken Bones

There was really only one solution to the situation she had found herself in, Six thought as she half-ran back to Picus’ apartment, the anxiety and fear filling her with every step she took. She needed to get back to the safety of the apartment, the safety of Picus’ company – but, it was the middle of the afternoon, he wouldn’t be home. Who’s to say that Aurelius wouldn’t sneak into the apartment and take her right there, before Picus came back?   
And Vulpes, the new Caesar? Gods, what had he done? Had Caesar died from his ‘headaches’ – and Vulpes deciding it was best to just kill Lanius along with him and take power of the Legion? She had no idea, absolutely no idea. She just needed to get to Picus. Get herself to safety – for now.   
And, she definitely needed to kill her father.

***

Six made her way towards the office building where Picus had his office, she had decided that right now, _right now_ , she didn’t want to be alone – at all, and the first person that came to her mind was Picus, everyone else could burn right now, she didn’t care. Her body was sore, her face pounding from the heat of the punch Aurelius had given her. She had no idea how she even looked as she quickly walked through the streets. If people were looking at her, she didn’t notice – her mind was set on one thing and one thing only – getting to Picus and then stay at his side until she at least had been able to calm down.

She had been afraid of her father since she first met him – again, but with the protection of Vulpes, she had always tried to just ignore his disgusting advances and threats – but now, Vulpes where so far away and she had screwed up. She had really screwed things up, helplessly falling for the gorgeous captain and somehow, her father had witnessed it. How had he seen them? Picus’ apartment was on the fifth floor and out in the open, they had only kissed and embraced, just as they were supposed to do – act as if they were in love. How had Aurelius witnessed their coupling?   
Six didn’t even want to think about it, it made her shiver – the taste still lingering in her mouth from Aurelius’ kisses made her nauseous. She could put up with a lot of things physically, but mentally? Six feared this would break her completely and she needed to stop it before it got out of hand, before she was the one ending up with a dagger in her chest – by Vulpes’ hand, or her own – if this played out badly. 

Six ignored the guards just outside the buildings and they didn’t stop her, they just looked at her with concern in their eyes and she could hear them talk lowly when she strode past them into the reception.   
“Good day, mam! How can I help…”, the receptionist looked at her, but Six just walked past her, towards the corridor that lead to Picus’ office, “Hey, mam, stop! You can’t just –“ 

Six kept up her quick stride through the corridors and she could hear someone following her, a male voice sounding behind her, ‘Mam’, ‘You need to stop, mam’, ‘Mam!’ – until she saw Picus standing with a group of men and a woman, discussing something.   
When she was just a few feet away from the comfort of Picus’ secure body, the guard following her gripped her arm and Six gasped, bringing Picus’ attention to her and as she looked at him, she saw his eyes widen and without hesitation, he closed the distance between them.   
“Let go of the woman”, he calmly told the guard who held Six’s arm.   
“Sir, she just rushed in here, refused to state her business, it's against protocol –“, the guard said and released Six’s arm and Six fell into Picus’ embrace.   
_Safety, thank the gods_ , Six sighed to herself.   
“That will be all”, Picus frowned, “You may return to your duties”  
The guard saluted him and Picus just nodded, which made the guard raise his eyebrows in question – but Picus seemed to ignore it as he quickly turned and led Six into his office. 

“Ivy”, he said as he closed the door behind him, “What the hell has happened?”   
Six looked up at Picus who stroked her pounding cheek with light fingers, seemingly assessing the damage to her face.   
“Did someone attack you?”, he asked, running his fingers through her tousled hair and picking out the bobby pins holding her bangs up, letting her messed up hair fall down. “ _Aurelia_ , tell me”, he said in a low voice.   
Six sobbed, she couldn’t help herself, the confrontation of Picus and the gentleness of his hands, the worry in his voice that sounded as if it was mixed with an anger – an anger that was not directed towards her, it felt so strange, so unlike everything else she was used to.   
“My father –”, she said.   
“What?”  
“He…”, Six fidgeted with her hands, not knowing exactly how she was going to lay it all out for Picus. How would he react? He was still very much a legionary, who’s to say he doesn’t all of a sudden turn violent, blaming her for all of this? Who’s to say he doesn’t just turn his back and throw her to the wolf in question, telling her she only has herself to blame, for spreading her legs to anyone but her husband.   
“ _Aurelia_ ”, he hissed and searched her eyes, gently stroking her jawline.   
“He knows, about…about _us_ ”   
“What about us?” Picus frowned.   
“That we’re not just…pretending”, she looked down at her hands, “He threatened to tell Vulpes about it, unless I…”   
“ _What_?”   
“Unless I sleep with him”, she didn’t dare to look into Picus’ eyes but it was as if the air inside the room changed and suddenly she couldn’t feel Picus’ hands on her anymore and she looked up. What she saw, was something she’d never seen in those dark hazel eyes before – they had turned into fiery pits, spitting with an anger that made her recoil back and when she looked down, she saw his large hands balled up into fists, turning his knuckles white.   
Then something changed in his expression and he suddenly looked scared, as if something had dawned on him and his eyes started to search her, going up and down her body, before he brought her into his arms.   
“He didn’t…?” Picus asked, closing his arms around her shoulders, pressing his lips into her hair.   
“What?” Six answered, “You mean?”   
He pressed her against him, as if he could shield her from the mere thought by just holding her.   
“No, he didn’t rape me”, she said after a moment’s silence. “Not yet…”   
“He wont, ever”, Picus murmured into her hair, “I’m going to kill that sick _degenerate_ , I don’t care what consequences there are – he’s _not_ getting near you ever again”   
“He’s a centurion”, Six whispered.  
“So?”, Picus asked, “If he was even half as smart as he think he is, he wouldn’t be hanging around here for longer than Caesar ordered him to, _someone_ could find out that he’s Legion”  
“Caesar is dead”, Six whispered.   
“I know”  
“Vulpes’…”   
“Yes, I know babe, don’t think about that now”, Picus stroked her neck and held her, “I want you close by, for now – until I’ve dealt with your father”   
Six nodded and leaned against the large, sturdy body of Picus, soaking in his security and safety, as he kissed her hair and squeezed her tighter. 

Six was to stay in Picus’ office while he ran some errands, he wouldn’t tell her what they were, but she was seated in an armchair where she curled up and stared into the wooden panels covering her inside the office. It was a small room without much decoration. There was the armchair Six was sitting in, a desk shoved up against one of the walls, with a simple chair by it. A terminal was on the desk as well as a typewriter and a ham radio. Above his desk hung a large NCR-flag with the two-headed bear and just beside the armchair she sat in, was a row of low bookshelves, filled with pre-war books and other trinkets.   
After what felt like hours of staring without Picus returning, she went over to the bookshelf and searched through the old, dusty books for something that could be of interest and finally found ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell – she didn’t recognize it and when she read the back, it peaked her interest and she sat back in the armchair and opened the book.   
Picus returned again after about 30 pages of the book and he didn’t say anything about what he was doing while he was away from the office, but he chuckled when he saw the book and then leaned in to give her a few long, deep kisses, before he walked out of the door and disappeared again. 

After another 15 pages, the door opened again, but this time it wasn’t the uniformed, tall body of Picus who stepped inside the office, instead the person intruding on Six wore heels and stockings. Six raised her gaze without closing her book and met the eyes of Nancy Oliver, _well this is a surprise_ \- or not.   
Nancy closed the door behind her quickly, “Miss Zeigler”, she said and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m looking for captain Curtis”   
“Mrs. Oliver, unfortunately he’s away for the moment”, Six closed her book and smiled towards the general’s wife. “Would you like me to leave a message, or would you like to wait with me? I’m sure he’ll be back any moment”   
“Oh my", Nancy looked at Six, "You’ll have to excuse me, Ivy – is it all right if I call you Ivy?”  
“Of course”, Six smiled.   
“What’s happened to you? Your face…”   
“Just an accident, I assure you”   
“I see”, Nancy said and arched a brow, seemingly going over the situation she’d found herself in.   
“I don’t mind waiting with you, you know. I just needed the help of the captain…about, well yeah. I’m sure he wont be long”, Six nodded towards the chair in front of Picus’ desk, “Please, Mrs. Oliver, sit. I so wish to get to know you more – you’re a strong, independent women well worth knowing”, Six thought it would be best to keep as civil as possible in front of the woman, considering she wasn't supposed to spoil the affair Nancy and Picus had. The thought about Picus sleeping with Nancy, however, made her stomach knot and she had to stop herself from acting like a jealous teenager towards Nancy.   
“You’re too kind”, Nancy gave her a strained smile but ignored the gesture for her to have a seat. “I need to be on my way, I’m afraid”   
“I’ll tell Ron you came by”, Six opened up her book again and nodded towards Nancy.   
“Er, sure”, Nancy gave another strained curl of her lips before opening the door and almost colliding with the tall statue of Picus. 

“Mrs. Oliver”, he sounded almost startled and Nancy backed back into the room to avoid the collision. Six looked up from her book before she had even found where she would start reading again. “What can I do for you?” Picus asked the woman.   
Nancy hesitated and looked at Picus with wide eyes. Six knew exactly why she was here, but Nancy couldn’t say it when Six was there – why would she come running to Picus’ office anyhow? It seemed very foolish, if you wanted to keep an affair secret from your husband – especially since this was the second time she had been in Picus’ office while Six was in the same building.   
“I, er”, Nancy fidgeted with her hands, “Hoped I could have a word with you”   
“Perhaps another time, Mrs. Oliver”, Picus said and moved to the side to let Nancy out of his office.   
“Yes, it seems to be a bad time”   
Picus grunted and nodded, “Good day, Mrs. Oliver”   
“To you too, captain Curtis” 

Picus closed the door and went to sit down in his chair by the desk.   
“We need to go home, I’ve set things in motion”, he sighed and leaned forward into his hands, mumbling something under his breath, possibly related to Mrs. Oliver, but Six refrained from asking.   
“What things?” Six looked at Picus.   
“To bring your father in, as a suspected spy. We have photographs of centurion Aurelius of Phoenix and I’ve given an anonymous tip about him being seen in the city. The MP and our secret service is looking for him right now, if they comprehend him without him taking his life first, he will be brought directly to me”, Picus explained in a low voice.   
“Won’t that put you at risk? Vulpes’ has several more spies all around the city”, Six felt her hands beginning to shake. What a fucking mess they were in, both of them – and it was _her_ fault.   
“Nah, you don’t have to worry about that. I’m doing my job, after all. If he’s taken in and accidentally dies by the hands of NCR soldiers, that’s how it’ll be – it’s happened before”   
“Silus…” Six said under her breath, “But he survived”   
“Yes, but not due to my interception in the matter”, Picus shrugged. “Let’s get home, yeah? I feel like I need some rest, and you – you definitely need some shut eye as well”   
“I guess”, Six gave him a small smile and when he rose from his chair and reached out his hand for her to take, she took it, enjoying the dry warmth from his skin against hers.

***

Someone knocking on the door woke Aurelia and Picus up in the early hours of the morning and Picus quickly shot up out of the bed, picking up a towel to bind around his hips as he walked over to the door and opened it carefully. Outside the door stood a civil dressed officer from the NCR secret service and he simply nodded and gave Picus a small envelope and then left. Picus closed the door and leaned against it as he opened the envelope and read the note within it.  
House 34 E, basement level 2, interrogation room 45

“Who was that?” Aurelia asked as she rubbed her eyes and sat up in the bed.   
“I gotta go”, Picus answered and pushed himself away from the door and tucked the letter down into one of the pockets of his uniform jacket.   
“What?” she looked at him, “Have they...?”   
Picus nodded and pulled a pair of underwear on and reached for his pants.   
“Seriously?”  
“So it seems”, Picus said as he sat down to tie his boots. “You’ll need to stay here, with the door locked. Keep a gun on you, all right? Stay awake while I’m gone, in case they caught the wrong person”   
“Sure…yeah”, Aurelia seemed to hesitate, looking a bit startled by the fact that they would have been able to take Aurelius – Picus was not, however. Aurelius was not a spy, he was a warrior – a great warrior, but he wasn’t very smart, specially not by Frumentarii-standards. He knew how to act on the field of battle, but not whilst trying to hide in a city. His mistake was staying, trying to go after Aurelia. He should have left.   
Picus leaned in over Aurelia and stroked her sore neck, tangling his fingers with the soft waves and curls of her hair. She was always so incredibly beautiful and as she sat there, naked and just perfect, looking almost like what Picus pictured a siren would look like. Soft, beautiful, enticing and most of all – so very dangerous. If any woman had gone through only half what she had, they would have been broken long ago – but she wasn’t, she survived. How, he didn’t know – but she did and he was all the more thankful because of it.   
He kissed her soft swollen lips, they were warm from sleep and her arms circled around his neck as she kissed him back.   
“I…I love you, you know”  
“I love you, Picus”

He buttoned up his shirt and tied the knot of his tie, tucked it down in between the buttons of his shirt, then put his jacket and beret on. Before he opened the door and left, he looked over his shoulder at Aurelia.   
“You got the gun?”   
She waved the gun to show him and smiled, though her eyes were nervous and Picus looked at her for another moment before he stepped out of the door and locked it. 

He had no idea what he would say to Aurelius, if it truly was him they had caught. He didn’t even know if he wanted to or even needed to say anything. Officially, the NCR didn’t condone torture, but for a centurion of the Legion? Oh, there would be torture either way and he wouldn’t even be put before a judge. During the war over the dam, the NCR had simply gathered up the caught legionaries in front of a firing squad. It was more or less what awaited the centurion, if it was Aurelius.   
Gods, he hoped it would be – the way that bastard scared Aurelia, he would make him suffer for it. How Vulpes had stood silently by, he couldn’t even begin to think about, but perhaps he didn’t know? Aurelia had told him that Aurelius had acted in a deprived way towards her since the first time she had met him after she’d woken up from the bullets. He guessed Vulpes had tried to keep her away from him, but she’d travelled from Vegas to Shady Sands with him – was that on Vulpes’ orders? Certainly not, Picus couldn’t imagine his praefectus being so thoughtless towards his wife, considering he had taken Aurelia away from him to begin with – it must have been Caesar. 

Picus was lead through the long dim lit basement corridors of the isolated military prison in which they held the most dangerous prisoners. It was here the NCR had their solitary confinement, the ‘unofficial’ torture rooms and other premises for those non-existent activities that went on behind closed doors – without any records being kept.   
Eventually he arrived before a thick metal door guarded by too heavy armed soldiers carrying M16 assault rifles and the door was unlocked. Cuffed to a thick metal chair bolted to the floor, sat none other than Aurelius of Phoenix and Picus couldn’t help himself as he smirked when he heard the door lock from the outside. 

“Of course, I didn’t expect anyone else”, Aurelius smiled back at him.   
“Good”, Picus said as he circled the cuffed centurion, “Then it doesn’t surprise you as to why I’ve gone to some extra length to be the person who shows you some of the more, delicate, NCR hospitality”   
Aurelius chuckled, “You know, Vulpes – the new Caesar, if I have to remind you – will eventually find out”   
“Perhaps”, Picus answered, taking his Colt out of its holster at his hip and letting the barrel rest in his palm as he crouched before Aurelius, smiling. “Say, what kind of fucked up childhood did you have?”   
Aurelius grinned back, “What? Gonna act as my therapist? Is that what the NCR uses as torture?”   
“I’m just saying, I can't name one thing of the shit that you do, that isn't fucking disturbed man, even by Legion standards, but come on – fucking your own daughter?” Picus smiled and pointed the handle of his gun at Aurelius, “How the fuck does one even come to think of it, raping ones own flesh and blood?”   
“You don’t”, Aurelius smiled, “One day, they’re just there and the mere presence makes your dick hard – ‘tis nothing complicated about it”   
“No, sure”, Picus nodded, “But to act on it though?”   
“Yeah, well – what can I say”, Aurelius shrugged with a smile. “You can’t deny the girl does things to a man – I dunno what it is, but just the thought of her makes me hard”   
Picus flipped the gun over in his hand and shot Aurelius in the kneecap, the centurion let out a howl and recoiled from the shot and blood started sipping out from his knee. “Mm”, Picus nodded, “But it ain’t for you to take liberties”   
“You mean like you have?” Aurelius hissed through clenched teeth and groaning from the pain, “She’s the fucking wife of our Caesar”   
“Yeah”, Picus smirked, “Alluring, isn’t it?”   
Then he shot Aurelius in his other kneecap. That would have to do for now, he simply couldn’t bleed to death too soon. _However_ , he thought as he holstered his Colt and unsheathed his combat knife, _it won’t do to have him talk and expose certain Legion spies out of spite. I guess that tongue will have to go_.   
It was going to be a long night.

***


	10. Death Don’t Have No Mercy

_Angel Cave, Utah_

It’s been over two years since he saw her last, _Aurelia_ , he hadn’t heard anything, but his dreams had been focused only on her almost a year ago, and now she came back to him in her dreams – but she wasn’t the same Aurelia. ‘VI’ was seen with her as she visited him in his dreams and at first he thought he dreamt of her brand, where the initials of Vulpes Inculta marked her back – but then he realized it was not that at all. It had to do with something that was only _her_ \- something new – something he didn’t recognize, something that signified a start of something new, something stronger. Something, that was hers alone, far from any road the Legion walked, closer perhaps, to the road Joshua himself walked – only in the company of his Lord. 

_I beg you Lord, do not tempt me, do not bring the girl to me. I could not handle her on my own and you abandon me just like you’ve abandoned your children before you in their own temptation. I ain’t strong enough to handle the Devil’s whisper as he comes in her form.  
She’s but a girl still, Lord. Have mercy, I beg you Lord. Come on down and greet your faithful children, give us the strength we so need in this dry empty wasteland. Give me the strength to give myself fully to you, without distractions of a carnal nature I’ve renounced for my eternal soul’s sake_. 

The shadows around him flared together with the flames licking the wood of the small fires all around the camp and inside the cave, they ran up the dry stone walls surrounding them inside the shelter the Lord had marked out for them. She had come here, seeking protection, seeking a new life. It was not given to her here, it was yet to be her time – Joshua knew it, but his own egoistic burning emotions of wanting to protect her, almost convinced her to stay here with him permanently. But Joshua knew, he knew it wasn’t what the Lord wanted – God, he spoke in the most mystical ways, unclear and difficult to decipher, but yet _he_ spoke. It just wasn’t her time then, but now – now Joshua had seen things – the Lord had spoken. She was in danger, _she_ was danger – rightful and merciful in her dangerous ways and she was to swallow up any who stood in her way. She wasn’t the whore of Babylon, she wasn’t sin – she was a daughter of the faithful, even though she possibly didn’t know it herself as of yet, but God would let her know when the time was right. Just as he had told Joshua when his time came and he had given Joshua the chance of rebirth from the fires of Hell.  
Something similar had happened to Aurelia, he didn’t know what at this time, but he could tell – through the images God showed him in his dreams. 

The living light of the fires surrounding him tore through the pitch darkness of the desert, as he sat and loaded the magazine clips to his .45 ‘A light shining in the darkness’, _how telling it always was_ , he thought to himself. Aurelia had taken up much of his thoughts as of late and even though he emotionally wanted to seek her out, to make sure she sill lived – he needed to keep his faith in the Lord, that _he_ would protect her. She would return to Joshua, eventually and perhaps this time, it was time for her to finally stay – to remain at his side.  
She was the daughter he never had – he, was the father she’d never had in Aurelius of Phoenix – a loving father who only wanted what was best for her. Joshua hadn’t realized this until she came to him, years after he was born again. As a legate, he saw her as something else completely – nothing to be ashamed about, nothing he couldn’t admit before the eyes of the Lord, mind you – but he didn’t see her true potential until the Lord had birthed him in a new light.  
Nevertheless, she was a woman. His body was easily taken in by the Devil – his time in the Legion was proof enough and he couldn’t trust his sinful nature not to be temped. So Joshua prayed, prayed for the strength to be a shield against the evil’s of this world for her to make use of, prayed for the Lord to let him redeem himself by being the protector he should have been to her from the very start – from the first time he laid eyes on her when she was but a child. He had failed, he knew it - _she_ knew it somewhere deep within her, he could almost smell it on her when he last saw her, at the tri-state junction. Then she was gone and he turned back into the Lord’s lands, turned back to the life that had been set out before him from the day he was given a second chance at life. Now, the glorious wheels of the large machine was turning once again, moving closer onto the rightful path. Joshua didn’t know when or where, but he’d know _then_ , that the time was coming. 

_Hear me, Oh Lord, redeem me from my sinful nature and keep me from the Devil’s temping grips that he hold on the sore edges of my heart. Please, help me and guide me to your path and bring me onto your streets of glory once my life in this faithless world truly is coming to its end. See me Lord, hear me – one of your children is calling on you for aid. Guide her as you have guided me, lead her to your love and strength. I beg you, in the name of your one true son – Jesus Christ. Amen_.

***

_Shady Sands_  
It was a long time since Six had felt so afraid as she had those hours alone, with only a gun at her side, while Picus was away dealing who she hoped with all of her being was Aurelius. She didn’t care what happened to him, she just didn’t want to see the man ever again. The fact that he was her father, it mattered little – as Vulpes had told her the first time she met Aurelius since her memory was lost – he was her father through biology only and Aurelius had made that fact perfectly clear in his own very disturbed way.  
The utter relief she felt when Picus returned to her, looking tired and worn, with a rage lingering on his features, was a relief she had only experienced with him. She didn’t really care what he had to say, if it had been Aurelius or not, she only cared for the fact that Picus was back - _he_ was at her side once again. She never wanted to be anywhere but with him. Of course she knew it wasn’t possible, not with the way things were – with the way things had gone. With the coup Vulpes had pulled, according to Aurelius, she was now not only the wife of one of the highest ranked officers of the Legion, she was the wife of _Caesar_ \- the mother of Caesar’s two sons. But she would make sure to enjoy the time she got with Picus as much as possible – there was no telling what the future held for her, what Vulpes was planning, except for the fact that he wanted to bring the NCR to their knees.  
Six didn’t really know what she wanted, in earnest – all she wanted then and there, was Picus. _Fuck_ everything and everyone else. If she could run away with Picus – grab her children and run away with him to the end of the world, she would. Every moment she wasn’t with him – she ached for him, both physically and mentally. Her jealousy became more and more evident when she thought about what Nancy and Picus did when they were alone – she didn’t want to even think about it. That _jealousy_ , it took her over completely. She had felt it when she watched Vulpes speak to a woman at the Tops, and she felt it with such a burning force right now, as she watched Picus undress and the horrible thoughts of Nancy’s lips on his body came into her mind. Those thoughts were far from rational, but love seldom was – and wasn’t that the truth of the hour?

As Picus undressed, they said nothing to each other. Six put the gun on the table and watched the gorgeous man before her, before she stood and walked over to him, helping him unbuckle his belt and open the fly on his pants, falling to her knees and unlace his boots – getting them off his feet and then pulling his pants down from his hips. The dark hair trailing down over his muscular legs looked like gleaming shadows in the morning light and Six kissed the skin of his thighs and she felt a hand stroke her neck and tangle with her hair.  
Picus stepped out of his pants and she leaned her forehead against his thigh and breathed him in. The lovely musky smell of sex, sweat and man came off of him and she loved it – loved his smell. He was so beautiful, this man before her – she doubted she’d seen anything so utterly perfect before in her life. 

“I cut out his tongue”, Picus finally said and Six looked up at him from where she sat down on her knees.  
“So it was Aurelius?”  
“Mm”, Picus nodded and Six stroked her hands over his thighs, up and down – blending the warmth from her hands with the warmth coming off Picus’ skin. “He’ll live for a while more, he doesn’t yet deserve to die”  
“You sound like Vulpes when you say such things”, Six murmured against his leg.  
“Is that bad?” Picus asked her and stroked his fingers through her curling hair.  
“Not necessarily. Vulpes is a good man, a good husband”  
“Not many would say he is a ‘good’ man”  
“Not many would say that about any man of the Legion, though I know at least two”, Six looked up at him, “And you are exceptional”  
Picus smiled and stroked her cheek, “Come, I need to feel you”, Picus said and helped Six up on her feet again and led her over to the bed.

***

Vulpes was a good man, sort of. Men had abused her all her life and she came to realize, that the kindness shown to her by Picus, was perhaps how it was supposed to be. Vulpes’ showed her kindness, but at the same time – he had raped her and abused her. Benny, had treated her kindly as well, though, that particular relationship did not have a good ending.  
Walking through Shady Sands with the comfort of knowing Aurelius was locked up behind thick bars of steel, Aurelia allowed herself to walk aimlessly and as she did, her mind drifted. She knew Vulpes had been made the new Caesar and somehow, she thought that she should be horrified by the thought of her megalomaniac husband becoming even more powerful. Not to mention the threat his new title would impose on her children. The only thing she now could feel, as worry and strangest of all – jealousy. She kept thinking of all the women who would throw themselves at _her_ man and if she knew the bastard that was her husband, he wouldn’t think twice about not sticking his cock inside them.  
Sure, he claimed to love her, he claimed a lot of fucking things, the lying dick. But he was still hers, and she had spent her time in Shady Sands with one of his infiltrators between her legs. Should she feel guilty? Considering what Vulpes probably did while she was sent hundreds of miles away, she guessed she shouldn’t. It didn’t stop her from feeling guilty however and suddenly, she missed him. She missed Vulpes.  
Picus was so different from her husband, he was tender in a way Vulpes was not, not even when he tried to act as if he were. It was as if her body was just so used to how Vulpes was, that it was the natural order of how things were supposed to be. She had lost her memory, but still, her body had responded to him immediately. The electric feeling she had felt from his touch in Nipton, the pleasure she felt when he forced himself inside her in her bedroom in the Lucky 38.

Her punishment in the suite at the Ultra Luxe, however, was something she’d rather not remember. That was the abusing side of Vulpes, the part of him, that actually scared her more than she was willing to admit. She had somehow yet again escaped her horrible father with the help of a man she opened her legs for, but right there and then, longing for her husband, she wished it was Vulpes who had helped her again. He had saved her the first time and even though she highly enjoyed Picus, she couldn’t help but to wish that when she walked back to the apartment, it was Vulpes she would meet and be bedded by. 

Picus was so different from Vulpes, the only common thing about them, was the language they spoke in private. Latin. Vulpes was pale, lithe and slim – but with a strength to him you couldn’t possibly think were there when you just looked at him. It was always his eyes that gave him away. Those intense eyes filled with menace, determination and authority. There was a good reason he often hid them in public, either with road goggles when he was in his armor, or by sunglasses when he was dressed as a civilian.  
Would Vulpes kill her if he found out that she’d been sleeping with Picus? Probably. Would he kill Picus? Most definitely. Though, it was too late to take it back and, frankly, Six did think it had been worth it. Picus had given her what she desperately needed when she needed it and she refused to feel as if she had done something wrong. 

As she walked through the city, a familiar smirk met her from an alleyway just to her right.  
At first, her head didn’t quite process the smirk and it took her a few seconds to realize whom that smirk belonged to. There was only one person arrogant enough to look so smug and self-righteous and at the same time be so goddamn attractive. The same person, was the only one she possibly could think of to make his way into enemy territory, ignoring the fact that he was now the leader of a state-wide organization and highly sought after by the NCR government. 

“Mister Fox”, Six smiled as she approached her husband. Think of the Devil and he shall appear. That was probably not the saying, but if ever it would be true – this was the time. Considering what she had been thinking about just minutes ago, she couldn’t help but to fall right into his arms and kiss his thin smirking lips.  
“Anna”, he smiled and stroked her neck, eying her with a pleased look on his face. “These profligate clothes looks far too good on you, I should have you wear them all the time, shouldn’t I?”  
Six gave him a sidelong smile and a wink before pressing herself close to him, lightly kissing his lips. “I just thought of you. I’ve missed you”  
“You’re the wife of Caesar now, my darling”, he said. Boastful as always, arrogant just wasn’t enough to describe the man who’d marked her neck for the rest of her life. But somehow, she couldn’t help but to think that he deserved to be arrogant and boastful. She had seen his back and he had told her of what had happened. She had been there, she had watched her husband get flagellated by a capped whip. How had she been able to even endure it? Thankfully, she couldn’t remember it now.  
“Yes, Picus told me. Congratulations, husband. I expected nothing less of you”, she said and kissed him again and he answered her deeply this time, before pulling away and clearing his throat.  
“Though, I’m here concerning a completely different matter”, said Vulpes.  
“Why is that, if I may ask?” Six frowned. It was strange, that he had headed all the way to Shady Sands, considering Picus and the other spies kept in constant contact with the Frumentarii through ham-radios.  
“Your father didn’t return to New Vegas and as far as I know, he’s not anywhere in the area and neither in Flagstaff or Phoenix”  
Six nodded and took a short step back from Vulpes, “Yes…About my father”  
“What?” she could feel Vulpes eyes from behind his shades and how they intensified and it definitely wasn’t with concern towards her, if anything, it would be rage.  
“He’s imprisoned here”, Six answered in a short tone and she watched Vulpes’ eyebrows cringe together. “I asked Picus to imprison him”  
Vulpes cleared his throat yet again, “And why, dear wife, did you have your father – a _Legion centurion_ , if I have to remind you – imprisoned by the fucking NCR?”  
“Because, _dear husband_ , he threatened to rape and kill me, now that I was so far away from you”

Vulpes didn’t move and for a few seconds, Six thought he was about to have one of his infamous maniacal fits of rage. Instead, he remained strangely calm.  
“I’ll inform Picus to have him executed”, Vulpes finally said in his calm, velvety tone.  
“You don’t even want to hear his side of the story?”  
“Why should I? I believe you Aurelia. He threatened to rape and kill his own daughter, who just happens to be the wife of his lord Caesar. If I had the time, I would have him dragged across the desert and eaten by mongrels. Fortunately for your father, I need to meet Arcade Gannon. Have you made contact?”  
“Yes, though it’s only on a shallow basis at the moment, though I should not have any trouble arranging something again. Mind, he thinks Picus and I are a couple”  
“Yes, and it will remain so for now. Here,” Vulpes gave her a small note with an address on it, “Meet me here later this evening. It’s where I’m staying while I’m here. If you can, contact Arcade immediately”  
“Of course, husband”, Six nodded.  
“I’ll see you later, Anna Fox”, Vulpes smirked before he yet again disappeared into the shadows of the alleyway. How he managed to do that during the evenings, she could understand – but in the middle of the day, in broad daylight? That, was to her, nothing short of a mystery.

***


	11. It's better to die 'neath a Legion sky

Six hadn’t seen Picus during the entire day, surely he would have gotten wind about Vulpes suddenly showing up in Shady Sands and for both Six’s sake and his own, he probably stayed away as much as possible.  
Vulpes seemed well and his new role of being the dictator over a large and still expanding country hadn’t as of yet had any kind of toll on his looks or behavior. He was restrained, as per usual, but moved in his usual arrogant but relaxed way in the small room just above a shady bar on the back streets of the city. Six was sat in his make shift bed, watching him as he read through a few rapports from his other spies in the city.  
“Husband, surely you must have relieved yourself of your duties as the head of the Frumentarii now that you’re Caesar?” Six finally said, trying to get some attention from her husband.  
“As much as I dare, my sweet”, Vulpes mumbled from down the papers he was focusing on.  
“You haven’t deigned to promote Alerio, or Cato?”  
“No”, was the simple answer she got. It was typical of Vulpes, not taking any chances – failure was in no way an option and if he had to be both Caesar and the head of the Frumentarii – so be it. Six sighed and pushed off her heels as she lay down on the small cot. It wasn’t the first time she wished she would have ended up married to a somewhat less complicated man – perhaps someone more like Picus. Though, when she thought about Picus, she wasn’t sure that a marriage to him would have been so much different. What’s to say Picus, in due time, wouldn’t make a similar career as Vulpes? Sure, Vulpes intellect and cunning ability were superior to Picus’, to anyone – mind you. Vulpes was a strategist to the core, devoid of any emotion that wasn’t completely rational when his mind kept him sane. The irrational side of him only came through every now and again, during his fits of rage. 

“Where you able to contact Arcade?” Vulpes finally looked up from his papers and turned to Six, who was now laying on the cot causally stretching out before him in her pre-war fashion.  
“Yes. Though, this evening, unfortunately, he was busy working. I couldn’t arrange something until tomorrow night. I hope that’s fine with you, husband?”  
Vulpes hummed and let his eyes fall on his wife’s outstretched body.  
“How are our sons?” Six asked, looking up to meet Vulpes cold lightly shining eyes.  
“Fine, I would assume”, he answered as he walked towards her, leaning over to drag a finger from her chin down over her collarbones towards the cleavage of her chest. “Have it become routine for you to dress up like a whore, Aurelia?”  
She met his eyes again, at first slightly frightened from the implications of his words, but then she smirked. “I thought you enjoyed me like this, Vulpes”  
“I do not enjoy having a whore for a wife”, he said in a harsh voice, squeezing one of her tender breasts in his hand.  
“No?” Six answered and drew one of her legs up to rest on his shoulder, without letting go of their eye contact. Vulpes broke their shared gaze and turned to lean his cheek against her leg, sighing quietly against her dark stocking.  
“No”, he answered after a moment of silence. “I have whores for that”, he said with a smirk, obviously baiting her. Six remained quiet, watching him and the silence seemed to frame them both into the moment. 

Gods, she hated him. But, Gods she had missed him. He knew exactly how to drive her absolutely insane, how to tear her apart simply with a glance and a few words. The love she felt for him, was somehow eternal, carnal and so strong, it seemed nothing could tear her away from it – not even the tender, soft and silken dark skin of Picus. The raw power Vulpes always had about him took her in and she gladly soaked in it – as she always had. Perhaps she wasn’t emotionally loyal up to the point that was expected of a legion wife, but she was fiercely loyal in every other aspect. Right then and there, watching Vulpes lean against her shin, his pale skin in contrast to her dark stocking and the dark lashes resting against his skin as he closed his eyes – she knew she couldn’t completely belong to someone else but _him_ , ever. She could pretend, for a few moments in time that she belonged to Picus – but should she ever have to choose between the two, Vulpes would always win. 

“My love”, Six said and Vulpes looked up at her, waiting for her to continue. “Why, are you really here? I can’t imagine you’ve travelled here alone, just for the sake of finding out about what has happened to my father – or to get your hands on the doc”  
Vulpes smiled and kissed her leg, before lifting it up and shifting it to his hip, so that he now were between her legs. He stroked his hands up the insides of her thighs, under her skirt, without taking his eyes off of hers.  
“You truly are a wife of mine, Aurelia”, he smirked, pulling her skirt up towards her hips. “How many men have you fucked since you arrived here?”  
Six was quiet. Did he know?  
No, he couldn’t possibly. 

“How many whores have you fucked in the time we’ve been apart?” She retorted after some time.  
Vulpes smirked and moved her panties to the side, stroking a finger over her slit before pushing two fingers in without warning. “You do heal fast and well, Aurelia”, he smirked. “Tight and welcoming, as you always were”  
He removed his fingers and instead unbuttoned his pants.  
“On your knees woman, _now_ ”, he growled and Six rose from the cot and slid down on the floor before Vulpes and he grabbed her hair, pressing her head down into his crotch. He was hard and she could feel his pulsating cock against her cheek, through the cloth of his pants.  
“Go on, wife”, he hissed, stroking away the strands of hair that had fallen over her face as he pushed her down, “Suck”  
And Six obeyed.

***

“I assume you still know to whom you belong, don’t you?” Vulpes said as he buttoned his slacks. His hair hang down into his face, he had kept it a bit longer, as he used to now – not as shortly cropped as he did when he was younger – but he didn’t allow it to become longer than down to his lobes.  
Six stirred from the question and looked up at her tall husband, standing besides the bed, shirtless only in his slacks. His body was almost completely hairless, only velvety soft light skin, scarred from a hard life of fighting to become what he now was. Caesar.  
“I’m yours”, Six answered, searching her husband’s features, “Whatever I do, Vulpes, you know I’ll always belong to you”  
“I know you’ve fucked someone, Aurelia”, he said calmly and sat down on the bed.  
“And so have you”, she answered, not breaking his gaze. “You’ve put your dick into countless women, even when you’ve had me by your side. Who’re you to tell me what to do and what not to do, when you send me away?”

Vulpes eyes darkened and before she even realized what happened, her face was warm from a hard strike and her nose burned. There was no pain as he struck her, but she could feel the dull pounds from his fist and the wetness from her lip that split under his knuckles. She pulled up her arms in defense, shielding her face from her husband’s rage, but suddenly he stopped and sat down on the cot again. Calm as if nothing’s happened.  
“The difference between you and I, when it comes to that, my dear wife”, he said in a low voice, “Is that I kill those who violate my wife”  
“And what does that mean, Vulpes?” Six voice was surprisingly shaken, she was used to his violent nature, but the sudden pain that came over her as he just sat there, almost inspecting the damage he caused, was overwhelming.  
“What it means? Dear Aurelia, sometimes I wonder about you. What did those bullets to your head do to you, my lovely wife?” He smirked.  
“Do you want me to kill the women you fuck?” She retorted with a scowl.  
“You’re free to, sure”, he almost laughed, stroking her thigh. 

Six was silent for a while, before frowning, looking at her collected husband sitting still, bare-chested on the edge of the cot.  
“You’d kill me if I did”, she finally said.  
“If you kill my whores?” He smiled and she nodded in silence. “I would not”, he padded her leg before he stood up once more. “I’d never kill you, my love. You’re the mother of my sons as well as the love of my life. If there’s ever such a thing”  
“And still you beat me”, Six turned to her side in the cot, away from Vulpes.  
“Of course I do, what do you expect? I know you love me Aurelia, but when you stray, you leave me no choice. Picus will die, believe me – there’s no doubt about it. Just as Aurelius will die for what he’s put you through. I will, however, _not_ , allow for my wife to take a lover besides me”, she could hear him smirk to himself as he buttoned up his shirt. “Know this, my dear, I will kill every last one you take into your bed, who’s not me”  
Six didn’t answer, instead she lay silent staring into the wall as she listened to Vulpes getting dressed.  
He was truly a monster. She’d never doubted it, there just simply couldn’t be one day that they spent in each other's company when he didn’t prove it to her completely. At the same time, he had more or less driven her into Picus’ arms. Perhaps it was a test from his side? Seeing if she would be faithful when away from him. But why should she? He had never been faithful, not even close. It wasn’t expected from a man of the Legion and certainly not from a Legion officer – or the Caesar. But he claimed to lover her, and perhaps he did – but it didn’t change anything.  
She had known it from the start, Picus had to die. From the first kiss, to their dance at Club Seventeen – she knew that when he had allowed himself to be seduced by her, he had signed his own death sentence. Vulpes wouldn’t kill him right away, of course. As of now, Picus was all too useful. But if it was as Six thought, that Vulpes planned to invade the NCR and take Shady Sands – as soon as it was controlled by the Legion – Picus would be among the first to be nailed to a cross for treason. Vulpes would never publically say that Picus had bedded his wife, he would be crucified for treason against Caesar on unknown grounds. No other explanation was needed. 

_Oh Picus_ , Six thought to herself as she heard Vulpes open the door and leave her alone in the small room. She sighed and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to take her, and perhaps, Vulpes would be kinder in the morning. 

__

***


	12. Far From Any Road

How does a war start? In Six’s experience, it differs depending on the General Commander leading the war-efforts and deciding the ways in which to go about. Naturally, you would say – history tells the story of thousands of different wars. History has seen slaughters of all kinds, from the ancient times when forces stormed the battlefields using simple tools to conduct war, to pre-war times, when technology was the most important aspect of warfare. 

It was a Wednesday morning that Six woke up with a start, looking around her in confusion as to what had just happened. Was that a loud bang? Are those screams?   
Picus weren’t in the apartment and when Six looked around, she noticed two paintings had fallen off the walls, along with some beer bottles lying crashed on the floor. She stood up and walked over to the window facing in towards the military section of the city, only to see a large amount of dust settling all around the houses in the city center. It was impossible to say from where the dust came, and what exactly had happened, but the screams she could hear from outside, inside the large cloud of dust raining down over the military section, told her something horrible had just happened.   
Six quickly tried to think of what to do, should she stay inside? Would someone come for her? What about Vulpes, and Picus? Gods, _no_. She rooted around for some simple clothing that she could throw on in all haste, she needed to go outside, see what’s going on.   
She found her worn pair of denim’s and a t-shirt that she threw on and quickly tucked her feet into her old military issued boots that she’d had since before she got shot in the head, and walked out of the door. 

She only took two steps out of the apartment house entrance when an unknown man grabbed her by the shoulders and hissing, “You’re coming with me”. Before she knew it, her hands were cuffed and she had a hood over her head, covering her eyes.   
Six tried to kick at the man who had spoken to her, cuffed her and taken her vision away, but he walked just behind her to her left. “What are you doing? What’s happening?” she snapped at him while trying her best to remain calm. It wouldn’t do to be dragged where ever it was she was taken to, kicking and screaming. The man didn’t answer and soon, Six simply let herself be lead away. 

They headed into a building, but as she couldn’t see anything, she only knew it wasn’t too far away from the military section, if they ever left. From the sounds around her, the whole place seemed to be in disarray, people running about, shouting, barking out orders and then quieting down as soon as she past by. What the hell was going on? Six thought to herself, as she was lead down several flights of stairs, almost tripping and falling on more than one occasion.   
She must have arrived at a much lower level, because the usual heat from the Mojave sun had completely disappeared from where she now was. When she was forced down in a cold metal chair, someone took off her hood and she realized she was indeed below ground. How far, she didn’t know. Before her stood a large metal table, bolted to the ground and as she looked at her chair, she noted that it was also bolted to the ground.   
The man who had taken her there came to stand in front of her, slightly to her side. He was dressed in NCR armor.   
Six couldn’t breathe.   
Picus must have reported her. He must have turned renegade and informed the NCR about her status as Caesar’s wife. But she couldn’t know, since the man standing before her, didn’t say a word.   
She tried to remain calm still, not saying anything that could be used against her in any way. Whatever had happened to make her end up here, she needed to make sure she would get out. She needed to get out, get to her sons – her children. Vulpes could handle himself, if her were ever caught - but her children, she needed to be with them. It had been all too long, too chaotic, too...Much. She needed Atticus and Ferox, her boys. 

“Do you know why you’re here?” the man asked her, cocking his head while inspecting her.   
Six just shook her head slightly.   
“Liar”, he smirked. Who was he? What did he _want_?

***

Vulpes sat on a chair in the apartment belonging to Picus, on the floor below him lay the knocked out frumentarius, the soon to be former _captain Ronald Curtis_. Vulpes sat silently with his hands in his lap, watching the man before him. Studying his physique, the way his chest heaved up and down, as if he was asleep – apart from the blood running down his neck, turning his white t-shirt red.  
It was difficult to really come up with a suiting punishment for a man that had knowingly taken his wife to bed. The torment he deserved, before he died, needed to be very carefully thought through to reach its perfection. Fortunately for Vulpes, and unfortunately for Picus, the new Caesar was an expert in the field. What had gone through this frumentarius’ mind, sleeping with Aurelia? He knew all too well that Vulpes would find out, eventually. And Vulpes, well, if anything, he held grudges.

Vulpes wanted it to be humiliating, painful, pure torment – and for a legionary, that meant torture and rape. There were several troops of legionaries hiding outside Shady Sands and inside as well, it wasn’t, after all, just a social visit that had brought Vulpes here. As usual, he came for his wife, of course. But it also didn’t exactly hurt to bring the capital of the NCR to its knees while he was here. The plan was rather simple, really. First, as the Legion usually did, they began with terrorism – explosives, kidnappings and infiltration. When the city stirred, people becoming erratic from fear and dissolution – the infiltrators stirred up riots and while the riots caused chaos – the hiding troops moved in. Conquering was, after all, a Legion specialty. 

All that could wait, however. As he was still the head of the Frumentarii, he had a disobeying frumentarius to punish and the pain and torment Picus was about to endure before he begged to be taken from this life – would be grand. Perhaps he should bring Aurelia here? First make her watch as Vulpes’ men tortured her lover, raped him – then maybe, he should punish her as well, in front of the degenerate? She would need to be punished. He wouldn’t kill her, certainly not. He loved her, he truly did – and the things he _did_ for that woman, by Mars – if that wasn’t love, he did not understand the least of it. 

As he sat there, watching Picus, still unconscious, he couldn’t help but to think about Aurelia’s willing body – did she behave the same when fucking this degenerate? Did she moan as passionately? Drive her nails into his flesh when she reached her climax? Did her cunt clench the same way around him?   
Vulpes knew Aurelia wasn’t unintelligent in any way, it must have been loneliness, boredom or a need to be validated as the gorgeous creature she was, that had driven her into Picus’ bed. It wasn’t an excuse, necessarily, she knew the rules of being married to a man like himself. Though, she seemed insistent on bending those same rules, even more so since she got those bullets to her head. Or perhaps she was always like that?   
He couldn’t remember right that moment. That was the trouble about time, you chose which memories to keep and not to keep. He had chosen to remember her as the willing nymph, the intelligent, witty and caring wife she had become soon after they married. He had all but forgotten the troubles – they loomed somewhere in the back of his mind, but there was no point in brining back those memories now. She’d be punished, as was custom, and then they’d go back to life as it was and would continue to be after this was done. He could send her to Flagstaff to be with their boys, surely being away from them had been a strain on her mental health – it was unnatural for a mother not to be around her children. Vulpes could understand as much, even though he rarely felt anything out of the ordinary for his sons – apart from the fact that they were _sons_ , heirs. And they were _her_ sons, _their_ children. It mattered, because it was Aurelia. Had it been anyone else, he would have slaughtered the bitch years ago – but he simply couldn’t live a normal life without Aurelia. She soothed him, gave him life, in a way.   
And she was his. His wife. His property.   
He owned her. 

V.I.

***

_Some hours later_  
In Shady Sands, they had radios, several channels as well depending on what you wanted to listen to. It was convenient and perhaps something that the former Caesar shouldn’t have deemed contraband – considering music did all kinds of good things to people. Music was motivating, it could help determine a person’s feelings and their mood.  
It was also highly effective in drowning out screams and pleads for mercy, shrieks of pain and the dull noises of bones breaking.

Vulpes dried his bloodied hands with a towel as he smirked towards Picus, still sitting tied to a chair in his apartment and as the DJ on the radio pushed play on an old music tape, Vulpes closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Picus was still shaking, becoming unusually pale from the loss of blood and the suffering he had just sat through.   
Somehow, Vulpes’ was proud. The frumentarius had manned through the entire ordeal without tears streaming down his cheeks – however, he couldn’t help himself from screaming and pleading when his fingers were broken, one after the other. The pulling out of his fingernails, he had taken better – perhaps his body had gone into a state of numbness? Probably. The bleeding had slowed down for the moment, and Vulpes thought it was time for a pause. He decided to leave Picus for now, not entirely decided on what to actually do with the man. Torture and rape, that was already decided, but what then? Death? Apart from having fucked his wife, he was a good frumentarius and legionary. Seeing as one of his best centurions as well as one of his best frumentarius had upset him in regards to his wife – he would be loosing quite a lot if he killed them both. 

He needed to approach this rationally, not letting his emotions get the best of him. Aurelia was important to him, she meant everything to him – in ways he couldn’t quite comprehend and it was possible he never would. But even if he wanted to kill both Picus and Aurelius for undermining him – there were other ways to punish them but at the same time keeping them loyal and useful to the Legion. Vulpes had plans for Shady Sands and he needed all of his officers close and fiercely loyal. He couldn’t risk defeat at the hands of the NCR now, especially since Lanius was dead. It had been a shame, the struggle for power that had naturally erupted at the death of the former Caesar. But it was expected and Vulpes still had his very loyal Lucius by his side – keeping New Vegas in control while Vulpes were in Shady Sands with more than half their western troops in hiding all around the city in the mountains and forests.   
It was possible his men needed to wait quite some time for an assault on the city – but it didn’t matter. They built camps, did reconnaissance and the generals would keep them busy training whilst waiting. The men he had inside the city was going to be busy, wrecking havoc and putting the city in a state of chaos before his huns could brake through the thick walls of the capital. 

Vulpes walked back to his small hidden room and then lay down on the cot, staring up at the ceiling above him, feeling satisfied for a moment. Something about sneaking around cities, being in hiding just did something to him. It was comfortingly familiar and something he knew so well. Still, sitting behind the large chestnut desk in the lavish hall of the former Ultra Luxe in New Vegas that Caesar had claimed as his throne room, decorated with all kinds of trophies, marble statues, beautiful rugs and paintings, did something to him as well. It appealed to his more _vain_ side. Vulpes had always known he could any woman he wanted – he’d never even bothered to ask. All his adult life, he had simply taken what he wanted, and so far only one person had denied him. Aurelia. She was the only person he’d ever allow to even try and she had succeeded. When she said ‘no’, it was possible that he would listen – if being in the right mood. Had she behaved herself, he saw no reason for her to be punished, it was as simple as that.   
He had destroyed her body on a number of occasions, he was all too well aware – both through violence and through impregnating her. But she never lost her beauty, every other woman did – at least he thought as much. Though, he had noticed over the years, that Lucius kept himself to the same woman he had for over 15 years and he seemed satisfied. The man never violated any slaves, male or female – and he treated his wife with kindness. It still seemed so foreign to Vulpes, treating a woman as if she was an equal of sorts. Of course, Aurelia could count as his equal in _some_ ways, but not enough to grant her any real kind of freedom. He could metaphorically belong to her, but in reality, she would always be a possession of his. He could tell her what to do, where as she could only ever _ask_ him. 

At least he felt good knowing Aurelia was out of harm’s way for the moment. She was locked up, deep down under the military district in a bomb sheltered detaining center. It was better that way, because soon enough, more bombs would start to detonate all over Shady Sands.   
The second one would probably serve as a good wake up bell in the morning, Vulpes thought as he stretched out on the cot, yawning with a satisfied smirk on his face.

***


	13. Detonation Boulevard

Six lay spread out over the metal table in the interrogation room, her t-shirt ripped open as she had tried to shield herself, not wanting someone else to see her. She still felt somewhat self-conscious about her body, her milk-filled breasts and the loose skin on her abdomen. The man standing in front of her didn’t seem to care, but had he ever?  
He had grabbed her wrists while pounding into her from between her spread legs and pushed her arms down from covering her sore bust. A snarl grew on his face as it seemed he neared his end and Six could feel it inside, the familiar and silky smooth manhood, stroking erratically against her inner flesh with such a ferocity she could do nothing else but to arch her back and wine in pleasure, trying to keep the all too voyeuristic moment as intimate as possible. 

Vulpes, as usual, spent himself inside her before leaning down over her, sweaty and breathless – the slippery beads travelling down his neck and his bare, glistening chest. His icy eyes, framed by the dark eyelashes looked at her as his warm breath on her skin sent shivers down her spine.  
“Did you have to rip my only t-shirt?” Six mumbled, still not able to move her arms, as Vulpes still held her wrists tight against the metal table.  
“Yes”, he breathed against her neck.  
Six sighed and closed her eyes, taking a moment to just…be. An unknown man in NCR armor had brought her to this clean, almost clinical room two days ago. He had pretended to interrogate her for two days, keeping her clothed and fed, surely – but then, without any warning what so ever, Vulpes had turned up. The man in NCR armor had visited her every two hours or so during the day – but during the night, or what she assumed was night, it was hard to tell with the constant fluorescent lights shining outside in the hallway whenever she was alone, the man didn’t visit her. Never once did he tell her he was Legion. Never once did he even hint on being a frumentarius. After two days, he had visited her as usual, letting her wash up and have something that resembled dinner and then left again. The next time the door opened, the person walking in with decisive steps made her eyes widen like the time she saw him at Nipton and realized who he was. 

Vulpes was the only man she could ever imagine, who could, with complete and utter arrogance, walk around a city plastered with posters of himself, warning its citizens against even coming close to the Monster of the East, the Desert Fox. The posters still only detailed him as Caesar’s strategic mastermind and infamous butcher alongside Lanius, but the structure of his face, his nose and lips, were almost like a photograph, even though the original poster was painted. Now, he had walked into an NCR prison and without any kind of hesitation what so ever, pulled her up on the table, kissing her feverishly and then fucked her like there was no tomorrow. 

Vulpes slid off and out of her, letting go of her wrists and pushing a thin huff of cold air out of his lungs, “I missed you”, he said, glancing at her while pulling up the zip of his dark jeans and buttoning them closed.  
“I take you arranged for me to be brought here”, Six sat up on the table, drawing her knees together and trying to cover up her bare chest as she glared at her husband.  
“Yes”, Vulpes nodded slowly, “But it’s for your own good”  
“It always is, isn’t it?” Six sighed.  
Vulpes’ eyes narrowed and he stepped in close to her again, his face only an inch of so for hers, “And who are you to question _my_ decisions, wife?”  
Six lifted her chin, looking back into his intense eyes and then lifting her hand to his face, stroking his cheek, “I’m yours”  
Vulpes chuckled, “Only when it suits you”  
Six pursed her lips and removed her hand, but before she had even thought about what she did, she smacked Vulpes over his cheekbone with her open hand. He hissed and glared at her, grabbing her wrist and bringing it up to his lips, kissing her palm.  
“Aurelia, behave yourself”, he whispered as he cocked his head slightly to the side, still keeping his eyes focused on hers.  
“I’ll behave myself, Vulpes – when you start acting like the husband you’re supposed to be”  
“And how’s that?” he asked, almost too calmly, his velvety voice soothing in its whispering tone.  
“I wanna go home”, Six whispered back to him. “Being away, it makes me stray”  
“It does”, he said quietly, “But I’m here now my love”  
“I’ll kill you if you leave me again, or send me away”, she whispered into his ear, before kissing that special spot just between his eye, eyebrow and ear – that soft patch of skin that somehow always smelled so good and comforting.  
Vulpes closed his arms around her torso and drew her close to him, burying his nose in her neck and breathing in her scent. Six wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head against his shoulder. She couldn’t remember the last time she was this close to him – actually close, emotionally. He was always so cold, or just off his head, distracted or just simply too unstable to become close to. Over the years, she knew they had grown close – she couldn’t remember half of it, but it didn’t really matter – her body seemed to know the connection and even though he continued to disappoint her in all ways possible, by being a fucking horrible husband, an arrogant tyrant and a cunning sadist, she loved him.  
Her hands stroked his neck and down his shoulders, over his scarred shoulder blades – the marks he wore as a symbol of his own successes. Now he was Caesar, _Imperator_. 

It was a strange thought, but somehow so obvious seeing his constant striving for excellence, his never tiring quest to know everything, have everything – and his most primal nature of being an overachiever with an extraordinary intellect. It was certainly what made him so frightening, there wasn’t just a dual nature to him – it was more. He had so many sides and it was impossible to keep up with the changes and shifts in his mood and mentality.  
But he made her feel safe, somehow. It was embarrassing, what he did to her – what he put her through – what she endured by returning to him. But no one ever said love and emotions were rational. She could blame it on the love she had for her children and the fact that without Vulpes, she’d never be allowed near them – but that, and it tore her soul at admitting it to herself – just wasn’t the whole truth. She loved the man holding her tight in his arms – she didn’t care if he was Caesar or nothing at all – as long as it was _him_. She almost wished he were someone else, perhaps just a simple farmer? Not a legionary, just an ‘ordinary Joe’. 

“I’m not leaving you, Aurelia”, he said after a long silence and as he trailed her spine with his fingers, from the small of her back up to her neck, curling her thick dark hair around a finger. “I’m going to give you the world”

***

Where was Ronald? Nancy hadn’t seen him in days and she was growing worried. The military courthouse, right in the middle of the main square of the military district had been blown to pieces two nights ago and Ronald’s absence was beginning to make her seriously worried about him. A higher-ranking captain would be reported about if he had been hurt, but she had heard nothing. She had also learned that his ‘girlfriend’, the hussy Ivy hadn’t been seen in days as well. Perhaps he had lied to her all along? If wouldn’t surprise her, but the thought sent unpleasant shivers down her spine as she paced the large office of her husband who sat at his desk, most likely ignoring her as he usually did.

“Are you not going to do _something_?” Nancy glared at her impassive husband who had his head deep inside the local newspaper. He didn’t even look up when he hummed a little before gracing her with an answer.  
“About?”  
“The city is starting to become unruly, Lee”, Nancy sat down in one of the armchairs in front of the large desk, crossing her legs over the knees. “Have you caught the terrorists?”  
“No”  
“Do you have any idea who could have ordered the explosion?”  
General Lee Oliver sighed as he put the newspaper down with obvious annoyance, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”  
Nancy made a face before reaching down to one of her pockets in her tight pencil skirt and taking out an etui with cigarettes, putting one between her thin strained lips and lighting it. “Surely you’re joking?”  
“Nancy, I’ve done everything I can. We have the MP’s and special rangers looking into the details while the regular soldiers are cleaning up the mess – until we actually _know_ something, there’s nothing we can do”  
“Completely useless”  
The general lifted an eyebrow at her remark, but remained silent.  
“What?” Nancy met his gaze with a glare.  
General Lee sighed and picked the newspaper back up, resuming the all too common task of ignoring his wife.

***

The military courthouse was only the beginning, soon enough, with a few days uneasy calm, things were falling apart one after another. It was beginning to become more and more clear that the sabotage was directed at the infrastructure of Shady Sands, one military instance being picked off after the other. The city became more unruly with each day and the more frightened people became, the more violent they grew.  
When the MP’s headquarters and the monorail had exploded and several smaller bombs had gone off, killing hundreds of civilians and military personal – the president had to act. But General Lee Oliver stood perplexed in front of the riots that raged the city, claiming even more lives as they were forced down by military units with electric guns and riot gear. Molotov cocktails, stones and bricks flew into the ranks of soldiers pushing the uprisings down, and the chaos was a fact.

Boone and Arcade argued about staying, or leaving. Arcade refused to leave the injured while Boone just wanted to get the hell out of dodge. He couldn’t, however, leave without either Arcade or Six and Six were nowhere to be found. It was as if she had disappeared under ground, maybe that captain she lived with had left the city and taken her with him? No one had seen Captain Curtis for days and Boone and tried to get a view of their apartment, but the military district was off limits for anyone except the military at this point and neither Boone nor Arcade was actual military. Arcade was a researcher and Boone a former sniper – maybe they could sneak in, but what was the point? 

“You heard anything from Vero or Cass?” Arcade asked Boone as they sat down against the wall in the small medical center in the business district where the military had set up a makeshift base for civilians.  
“No, but if they know what’s good for them, they’ll keep as far away from here as possible”, Arcade answered, rubbing his throbbing temples with tired fingers.  
Boone coughed and pushed up his shades while starting to dig inside his pockets after cigarettes.  
“Oh no you don’t”, Arcade smacked the packet he drew up from out of his hands, “Not in here”  
Boone grunted with dissatisfaction and silently rolled his eyes behind his shades. How had he been stuck alone with the doctor? How had he been able to stand him for the past months? He leaned back against the wall and sighed, thinking that desperation did things, unexpected things. He could have stayed in Novac – no, he couldn’t have. Novac had too many sore memories for him still, about Carla, about Manny. Shady Sands was in no ways good, but at least it wasn’t Novac and Boone knew war was coming and if there was one thing he was good at, it was war.

***

Vulpes moved with caution along the streets and alleys of Shady Sands. He knew most wouldn’t even begin to actually believe it was him, if he was recognized. He was somewhat surprised however, that the NCR ranger veterans skulking around the mountains and forests hadn’t been able to locate at least _one_ of the many Legion camps surrounding them in all directions. Hopefully everyone was too busy trying to keep control over the city itself – if there were riots, who cared what happened outside the city gates? It was perfect, utterly marvelous if he was to be completely honest. As of yet, everything had kept to the plan and soon, oh so soon he would be able to make an example of the NCR’s crown jewel, their capital. New Vegas had been the former Caesar’s crowning point – Shady Sands would be his.  
With Shady Sands under Legion rule, it would be easy to take Sac-Town and the southern parts of the NCR and then the entire West would belong to the Legion.

It was an expansion that they had only been able to dream of only a few years ago, but now it laid at his feet. 

The occupied Shady Sands would be a sight to behold, Vulpes thought as he walked, keeping to the shadows but not obviously hiding. Hiding in plane sight had always been one of the best ways to remain anonymous and with the ignorant profligates in the city, it wasn’t even a challenge. People were so busy being scared, he was surprised they even dared to walk the streets anymore and few actually did. Most people stayed inside, hoping a bomb wouldn’t go off all too close to where they were – it was a decent tactic, Vulpes figured. A decent tactics for weak cowards, but it wouldn’t surprise him if when they were done and ready for the actual assault on the city, that half the NCR army had deserted.  
The NCR didn’t allow for torture and they hardly had any reprimands considering their soldiers and they allowed for all too much disobedience. Soldiers appearing drunk and slacking off was a common sight in New Vegas before the Legion occupation and here in Shady Sands, it was no different. The city was full of degenerate behavior and a general lack of discipline.  
Oh, how he missed a challenge.  
But with the help of the high-tech weapon of Archimedes One and Two, he would be able to really fuck up the city the night of the assault – and it would be a glorious sight to behold.

***


	14. Promised Lands

Chaos had erupted in Shady Sands and no matter how the General and his MP’s tried to control the citizens, it seemed an impossible task. Once one group of rioters and protesters had been rounded up and held in one of the detaining buildings, another group came and caused just as much trouble. This was a deliberate attack on Shady Sands and the NCR, but Lee Oliver and his men couldn’t pin point from where the attacks came or who. It was someone within Shady Sands, obviously, but whom?  
The Legion would be the obvious choice since they moved closer and closer to the former Californian borders, however, they hadn’t received any reports of Legion activity within NCR territory. And besides the Legion, there were several other fractions who wanted to control the last of NCR’s territory – large mercenary groups, tribal groups like the Great Khans who’d moved farther west due to the Legion gaining control over New Vegas and raider clans. 

It wasn’t until the city gates were stormed with legionaries and former tribals who climbed the walls and poured in like cockroaches that General Lee and the rest of Shady Sands understood what had been happening the last couple of weeks.  
Before he could even react properly, the whole city was occupied and before him stood the feared and infamous Vulpes Inculta.  
The new Caesar, dressed in purple and gold.  
Gone were the fox’s head and the road goggles – replaced by golden armor and a laurel crown.  
The Caesar strode in to the general’s office with four men to his sides and behind him, carrying automatic weapons and machetes. Inculta wore a nonchalant smirk on his face and snapped his fingers, pointing towards the general’s wife. 

“Bring Picus his whore”, Inculta said without taking his eyes off of the general. Lee felt his stomach drop as he watched Nancy being dragged out by two legionaries clad in red fabric, kicking and screaming.  
This wasn’t happening, Lee thought. I couldn’t be possible – it wasn’t supposed to happen like this. How had the Legion been able to infiltrate Shady Sands in a way that made it possible for them to occupy the entire city in only hours? A few spies were here, of course, the NCR knew as much – but a few spies didn’t explain a full on assault rendering in an occupation.  
The NCR had spies within the Legion as well, but no one had reported anything in the weeks before – no unusual movements, no nothing.  
General Lee Oliver sighed as he bowed down before Inculta, who softly touched his scalp. 

“I need my wife”, Inculta finally sighed distantly to himself, removing his hand from the general’s head and leaned against the table. “Put him in the dungeons. Let him watch Picus fuck his wife”  
“Hail, imperator”, the legionaries saluted him with outstretched hands and then left, dragging Lee out with them as well.

***

“You haven’t yet killed my father”, Six pointed out when she met Vulpes in General Lee Oliver’s old office, where he stood leaned casually against the table.  
She had been lead through the now occupied city and the legionaries and captured tribals had already began to raise crosses along the central boulevard and along the larger streets, capturing NCR soldiers and immediately crucifying the top military personal, while sorting out the females from the males and deciding who will make pliant slaves and future wives of unmarried legionaries.  
“No”, Vulpes was distant where he stood, looking out the large window to the right of the large oak desk.  
“Why?” She asked as she closed in on him, falling to her knees before him and kissing his knuckles. Vulpes hand lightly touched her cheekbone and he then made a swift movement with his hand, letting her know she could stand up again.  
Vulpes pulled her close to him with a hand on her lower back and dipped down to nuzzle her neck, “I’ve just lain claim to the NCR’s largest city in a matter of hours, and you prod me concerning the death of one useless incestuous cannibal?”  
“I have a distinct memory of you promising to kill him for me”, Six looked into her husbands steely light eyes with her large blue ones. Vulpes was impossible to read, as usual, but he did not wear a smirk on his features and the patch between his eyebrows was wrinkled, but not quite in a frown.  
“That is correct, my love”, Vulpes nodded. “I do so hate to ask patience of you, Aurelia, but this time, you must endure. I’ll give you your justice”, he said and kissed her softly on her lips. Six leaned in to him and answered the kiss, trying not to think about the screams of pain and horror she could hear through the windows of people being slaughtered and crucified, raped and massacred outside. She tried not to think about Picus.  
Perhaps he was dead?

It would be better if Picus was dead, it would make things easier for her. It had been a wonderful mistake and she had known it from the beginning. She wasn’t her own person, especially not now, since Vulpes had become the reigning imperator over the Legion and its lands. She was now the wife of a god. A mad god, dressed gorgeously in purple and gold, with his raven curls bending around the golden laurels in his hair. The sight of him like this, in his tunic and bare legs, strengthened by greaves reaching up to his thighs, was nothing short of glorious. 

“What do you wish of me, husband?” Six asked, looking up at Vulpes.  
Vulpes looked at her and sneered with his lips, before correcting his expression and smiling in the softest way he could, which was not soft in any kind of manner. 

“On your knees, whore”, he said and straightened his spine, clutching his hands before him.  
Six frowned and looked at him, and when she didn’t react, he nodded and gestured with his hand for her to do as he asked. Six got to her knees before him and bowed her head.  
“You fucking cunt”, Vulpes said in a calm tone, looking at her with idle eyes. “Do you have any idea, what you have done?”  
Six didn’t answer, her hands were trembling and her throat felt thick and dry. She should have known. He’s always playing her, toying with her and why does she have to be so foolish? She should have run, should have just killed herself.  
Vulpes crouched down and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up at him, his face twitching and mouth snarling. “How can I trust, that your next pregnancy isn’t the result of your whoring? Am I worthy of a bastard child from another man? Is that how low you view me, Aurelia?”  
Six remained quiet and Vulpes chuckled.  
“How can I possibly make you pliable enough, Aurelia? Please, tell me, because I’m starting to feel as if I am running out of options. I’ve beaten you. Raped you. Destroyed your body, had you whipped, locked up and in a slave collar. What else can I possibly do?” he sighed. “Do you wish for me to kill you, my love?”  
Six was shaking, trembling, cold and hot at the same time. It felt like time itself had stopped, like what was happening at this moment, wasn’t real at all. It just wasn’t possible for it to happen.  
“ _Answer me_!” Vulpes roared and backhanded her so hard she fell backward against the floor and he rose to his full length, towering above her from where she lay on the floor, looking up at him. “Do you wish me to crucify you outside with the other traitors? Beside Picus?” he laughed. “I’ll impale him through is mouth to his anus before I hang him on a cross. Have you ever seen what a man looks like after he’s been ravished by twenty men, Aurelia?”  
“What did you do?” Six whispered.  
“Hm?” Vulpes looked at her, “Why don’t you have a look outside?” Vulpes said with a smirk. 

Six thought she was going to faint. She didn’t want to look outside, but she knew that if she didn’t get up by her own accord, Vulpes would only make her – what she could expect when she looked outside, she could also imagine, all too well. 

As she stood up and on wobbly knees made her way over to the window, Vulpes followed her and before she dared to look up from the floor and watch what was outside the window, she felt Vulpes’ hands on her shoulders, snaking their way around her and in a faux comforting way stroking her arms soothingly.  
“Look, pupa”, Vulpes almost cooed to her.  
She lifted her gaze and what she saw outside, was worse than she ever could have imagined. It was impossible for her to even imagine what lay before her down on the large square beneath the general’s office and continuing along the long boulevard running through the city.  
It was hades, hell, whatever you’d like to call it, spread out like a wanton whore beneath her. The streets were painted red with blood, crosses with writhing bodies littered the boulevard, in corners you could see NCR women being raped, children being torn from their parents and men being executed by firing squads.  
Then, she saw him. Picus. 

It was over.  
Six, Ivy, Aurelia. She was crushed. She could never unsee what she had witnessed there on the square below the large military building in Shady Sands. Vulpes couldn’t even have hurt her as much if he ripped her heart out and served it to the mongrels, or sold her back to Aurelius.  
Six had never seen a man beaten and raped by twenty legionaries before and she never wanted to see it ever again. The gore, the poor man still clinging on to his life, even though parts of him were missing, others hanging out from the wrong places, his skin bruised and battered.  
She was going to be sick. 

Vulpes drew her closer to him and closed his arms over her chest, hugging her from behind as he silently breathed into her hair.  
“Do you see, my love? I couldn’t possibly do that to you. You’d die and that just wouldn’t be fair to you, Ferox, Atticus…Or me” 

A silent tear made itself known as it slid down Six’s cheek and she only noticed it because Vulpes breath made the tear cold as it came down her face.  
“Yes, Vulpes”, Six finally said. “I can see”

***

  
Flood water’s rising fast, dead bodies floatin’ past   
Tornadoes swoopin’ down, out of Satan’s jeweled crown   
To other folks, I cannot relate. I could try, but I ain’t   
All I want is to live real long   
I wanna watch my body decay   
My health suffer, and my hair turn grey   
Then the Devil can take me away, _Satan you can have your way!_   
I am a crooked man

**Crooked Man – Those Poor Bastards**

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There might be a third part of the Aurelia-series, I can't leave it like this, can I?


End file.
